- 5/12/2025
Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy held a press briefing to deliver updates on outages and staffing shortages that have led to significant delays at Newark Liberty International Airport.
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00:00Good afternoon, everybody. I'm here with the acting administrator of the FAA, Chris Rushlow.
00:07I appreciate him being here with me. We want to talk, and Frank from the FAA here as well.
00:14Listen, we've all been reporting and seeing what's happening at Newark Airport,
00:19and I think it is clear that the blame belongs with the last administration.
00:25Pete Buttigieg and Joe Biden did nothing to fix the system that they knew was broken.
00:32And so I want to lay out how we got here, what's going on in Newark,
00:37and what our plan is to actually fix it under this Trump administration,
00:41who, by the way, fixes problems, doesn't cause problems.
00:44So how we got here. In July of 2024, the Biden-Buddijug FAA moved control of the New York,
00:51Newark airspace from New York, or also known as N-90, to Philadelphia Tower or the Philadelphia TRACON.
00:58As part of the move, the STARS system that processes radar data for Newark remained based in New York,
01:06so they didn't move it from New York down to Philly, where the controllers would be.
01:11Redundant and diverse telecommunication line feeds this data from New York to Philadelphia TRACON,
01:16where controllers handle New York arrivals and departures.
01:19The Biden-Buddijug FAA bungled this move without properly hardening the telecom lines feeding the data,
01:27which was already well known to be air-prone.
01:31Without addressing the underlying infrastructure, they added more risk to the system.
01:37In fact, there were issues in October and November under Biden and Buttigieg
01:42that would have highlighted to the prior administration that the underlying hardware would continue to cause problems.
01:51That, along with their overall neglect of our whole aviation system
01:55and the aging issues that we've highlighted over the course of the last several weeks,
02:01were clear mistakes of their administration.
02:03So, let's talk about where we are now.
02:06What's going on in Newark?
02:09So, a trio of recent equipment issues at Philadelphia on April 28th, May 9th,
02:15and May 11th affecting communication radar displays has highlighted the antiquated nature
02:20of the nation's air traffic control system, which is still using copper wires and other outdated technology.
02:27The incidents on April 28th and May 9th resulted in very brief outages
02:33that impacted the STARS radar data displays going down.
02:39The most serious of these outages lasted approximately 30 seconds.
02:43This includes the STARS radar data displays going down again for 30 seconds.
02:48The STARS displays took approximately 60 seconds then to reboot and come back online.
02:53So, there's been some discrepancy, 30 seconds versus 90 seconds.
02:57The outage was 30 seconds, but then the displays took another minute to boot.
03:02That's where you get 30 and 90 seconds.
03:05But the telecom was out for 30 seconds.
03:08The outage also interrupted the phone line and radio frequencies for a very short period.
03:13This is how controllers talk to pilots.
03:17Radio frequency connections to phone lines via voice switches are the primary way those controllers do talk to pilots.
03:23These frequencies returned almost immediately, which is why you heard pilots actually telling airplanes that they couldn't see them with the radar.
03:33They were able to talk to the airplanes but couldn't see the radars or the airplanes on their scopes.
03:39These issues, along with staffing shortages at Philadelphia and runway construction at Newark,
03:44have led to the delays for passengers.
03:49So, in response, on Friday night, the FAA implemented a software update to prevent future outages.
03:55The software patch was successful.
03:58And our redundant lines are now both working.
04:03We know this because on Sunday there was an outage.
04:05You all reported on that.
04:06And the outage was the main line went down, but the redundant line did stand up, meaning our patch, our fix, worked.
04:15Now, because of that, the controllers who had seen this the prior two times, when they saw the main line go down, they were concerned.
04:23Even though they could see airplanes and talk to airplanes, out of an abundance of caution, they actually shut down the airspace for 45 minutes.
04:31But we still had our scopes and our telecom functioning on Sunday morning.
04:38So, it's important to note that, and we're going to talk about this in a little bit, this system is so old that even if you have high-speed fiber information coming in to a TRACON or a tower,
04:53the equipment that we use is so old, the information has to be slowed down.
04:58It comes in too fast.
04:59It has to go at the speed of copper wires.
05:02So, again, we have two issues, the reliability of the telecom, but also the old equipment that we're using paired together are causing a lot of issues in the system.
05:14So, let's talk about what the Trump administration is doing moving forward to fix the problems that were left to us from the Biden-Buddhi judge administration.
05:23Now, while these temporary software fixes that I mentioned earlier that worked on Sunday morning should prevent future outages, the core issue is the telecommunication lines.
05:34Here's what we're doing to fix the telecom.
05:37One, I'll be requesting an OIG investigation into the failures of the last administration and the decisions that were made to move the TRACON from N90 in New York down to Philadelphia
05:48and the work that was done to plan for this move and making sure that the lines were hardened.
05:55The FAA today is assembling a Tiger team of experts to fully fast-track the fixes that we've identified need to be done to make sure this works.
06:05The FAA has replaced copper lines with fiber lines at Newark, JFK, and LaGuardia.
06:12That work is done.
06:14It was done in the last couple weeks.
06:16However, it's going to take another week or two to be testing those two lines before we flip the switch and make them live.
06:24We're also – oh, we're going to flip that in – but it's one to two weeks that's going to actually happen, we hope, at the end of May.
06:33We have spoken with the heads of Verizon and L3Harris to understand why the telecom issues persist and how we can expedite those fixes.
06:43And, again, we work with L3Harris as our contractor, and Verizon is on the ground offering the support on the lines that run actually the telecom into the TRACON.
06:57They've assured me that this work is their top priority, especially Verizon.
07:01I spoke with their CEO yesterday.
07:03It's a top priority.
07:04They're going to move this work as fast as possible to get efficient and effective lines working for Newark.
07:11The goal is to add three new telecommunication connections between New York and Philadelphia.
07:16This will provide more high-speed reliability and redundancy, so if one goes down, we are assured that the others will stand up.
07:26The goal is to have this done as soon as possible.
07:29I'll give you an update as soon as we hear back from Verizon on how quickly they can progress with this work.
07:35Let me be clear, even with these new lines, we still, as I mentioned, have to dumb down the data feed for these outdated systems inside of our towers, our centers, and our TRACONs.
07:51Again, I showed this last week.
07:53We're using equipment that looks like it's off the Apollo 13 set.
07:57And so today we have high-speed fiber, but when it comes into the TRACON, we do slow it down so it can be used by the old equipment.
08:08Our hope is to have high-speed fiber connections and then new technology in these towers and TRACONs and centers so we can maximize the use of American airspace.
08:22Number five, the FAA has deployed a temporary backup system to the Philadelphia TRACON that will provide redundancy during the switch to a more reliable fiber optic network.
08:31This system will ensure that if both fiber connections fail, at the same time, air traffic controllers will still be able to communicate with aircraft and with other controllers.
08:41This fortifies communications, ensures it is uninterrupted if a dual fiber failure occurs.
08:48The FAA is going to establish a STARS hub at the Philadelphia TRACON so the facility doesn't have to pull that data from New York.
08:58So, again, we're pulling it from New York.
08:59We want to bring that down to Philadelphia.
09:02By the way, the STARS system should have been brought down to Philadelphia before this TRACON was moved.
09:10Biden and Buttigieg did not bring it down.
09:12They just quickly moved the TRACON without having STARS in place and without testing how hard the equipment actually was in regard to telecommunications.
09:22Using existing statutory authority, I have as the secretary of DOT.
09:28The DOT will convene a delay reduction meeting this Wednesday with all airlines who have flights at Newark.
09:36The goal is to have a manageable number of flights land at Newark.
09:41Families shouldn't have to wait four or five hours for a flight that never takes off.
09:48By lowering the number of flights, we can ensure the ones that are kept, they do actually take off and they do actually land.
09:55This authority hasn't been used in over 20 years.
09:59As I've stated publicly, if Congress approves our plan, the president's plan, to build a brand-new air traffic control system, work at Newark is going to be a priority.
10:12We will do that first.
10:14And so, again, to recap, I'm going to pass it off to the administrator.
10:19We're in a situation where telecom is going down.
10:21And it's taken some time to isolate the problem, and we believe we've done that, but I don't think we're out of the woods yet.
10:30We actually have to spend the time now to build the network that should have been built before the TRACON was moved.
10:36I know this is frustrating.
10:38I know it's hard for the airlines operating out of Newark, the families that fly out of Newark.
10:45It's problematic.
10:46But our commitment is always safety.
10:48We're going to make sure that if you fly, you're going to fly safely.
10:52And if we reduce the number of flights at Newark, we're not doing it to annoy people.
10:57We're not doing it to delay people's travel.
11:00What we're doing is guaranteeing safety.
11:03And when you have problems, you actually slow things down.
11:06And that's what we've done.
11:07We've slowed down the flights at Newark until we can stand this system up and be assured that we have enough controllers
11:15and a system that's actually working to keep everybody safe.
11:19And again, we didn't have to be here.
11:21This did not have to be our story.
11:24Over the last four years, the last administration, they knew this was a problem.
11:28And by the way, during COVID, when people weren't flying, that was a perfect time to fix these problems.
11:34But again, they got $1.2 trillion for infrastructure, and virtually none of it went to fix the biggest American infrastructure problem that we have,
11:43which is our air traffic control system.
11:46And so what you see in Newark, we're going to have to fix.
11:49We're going to move fast, but we're going to do it right.
11:52Right. My concern is that we could see other situations like this around the country, because the system is old.
12:00It's old.
12:01And we are fighting to make sure we work with Congress, get the money, and begin this build of a brand new system as quickly as possible.
12:09This couldn't happen without the leadership of President Trump, who, again, I'm going to say, he talked to me.
12:15When he gave me the job, he knew how old the system was.
12:18And so when I presented him this plan, he said, listen, I want you to walk through it.
12:24Are we going to do the whole thing?
12:26This is not a patchwork.
12:27It's not a Band-Aid.
12:28This is going to be everything.
12:29We're going to build it brand new.
12:30And I said, yes, Mr. President, this is a plan to build everything new.
12:35It's going to be complicated, but we don't want more Newark's.
12:40We don't want more Newark's to happen throughout the country.
12:42And so we are going to fix Newark.
12:44We have a plan to fix Newark.
12:46We ask for your patience.
12:48And then we're looking to Congress to give us the resources to fix air traffic for the whole country so no one has to deal with this in the future.
12:58And with that, I would like to pass it off to a guy who has done an amazing job in orchestrating his team,
13:05in building a Tiger team to make sure we can quickly and efficiently address the problems that we face at Newark
13:11and throughout the system, our acting administrator of the FAA, Chris Rushallup.
13:17Thank you, Mr. Schechter.
13:19Good afternoon.
13:20Yes.
13:20As the Secretary just described, so we have an action plan moving forward here.
13:26Starting today, under the Secretary's direction, we have initiated a task force, an emergency task force, comprised of experts,
13:36executive experts from the FAA, from L3 Harris Corporation, as well as from Verizon.
13:42We're very focused on making sure that travel into Newark is safe and efficient.
13:50I can tell you uncategorically that the travel into Newark today is safe,
13:56but we will continue to monitor that situation as it relates to the technologies that the Secretary referenced earlier.
14:02And we will also work with the airlines, and the second reference was through this delay reduction task force meeting that we're having on Wednesday.
14:12That will be critical to working with the carriers to make sure that the travel season this summer is good for the American traveling public.
14:20So, again, first and foremost, we have a task force starting today with the right technical experts to keep focus on this every single day
14:31and to be transparent about the progress we're making.
14:34And the second piece is to make sure that we're working with the airlines and the airport, the Port Authority to Newark and New Jersey,
14:41to make sure that the travel into Newark this summer is safe.
14:45The final thing I would mention, and the Secretary touched on this as well, is it is time.
14:51We have seen delays and disruptions in the system.
14:55We need to get ahead of that.
14:56And by being bold and taking action on this new air traffic modernization program,
15:02that will be a long-term fix, even the mid-term fix,
15:06to make sure that we continue to provide safe and efficient travel for the American traveling public.
15:16Thank you, Mr. Secretary.
15:18As a former controller and now as a manager that helps oversee the air traffic organization,
15:25top to bottom in all my conversations with our management team and with the controllers,
15:30they look forward to new infrastructure.
15:33They look forward to the commitment that is being made by this administration
15:37and the leadership by Mr. Duffy to work on equipment that is younger than the children that they have.
15:44I will tell you, when I was in the Air Force and I was a controller in 1999, I actually was the test bed for STARS.
15:51That's when STARS first came out, was in 1999 at Eglin Air Force Base.
15:56We tested that.
15:57As a controller at Albuquerque Center, it was almost 20 years ago where the ERAM system came in.
16:03That's our automation for our in-route centers.
16:05And the issues that we have with static on the frequencies were problematic then.
16:09It's exponential now.
16:10So we look forward, Mr. Secretary, to the new infrastructure, top to bottom.
16:15We applaud your efforts, sir.
16:18So we're happy to take any questions if you have any.
16:21Yes.
16:22Mr. Secretary, thank you.
16:24Could we see more air traffic controllers from Better Step Towers come to Newark to help out?
16:31I'll take a stab at that.
16:32Tell me if I'm wrong.
16:33But it does take time to train up controllers from other areas.
16:41So if they move from the Potomac Tracon and move up to Philly, it takes up to a year to train them on that airspace, Frank.
16:48Am I right on that?
16:49Average certification time, sir, for N90 is two and a half years.
16:52But with our accelerated program, we hope to have that reduced quite a bit by a year to a year and a half.
16:57So it could be a year.
16:58So even if you have a 20-year experience controller, they move to a new airspace.
17:03It takes them a long time to train up.
17:06So we don't have the ability to just snap our fingers and move controllers around.
17:10It takes time to train up specifically on the airspace in which they control, which is why the staffing becomes an issue.
17:17You've got to see over the horizon on how you make sure you have enough in training to deal with any shortfalls that may come in the out years.
17:23You've been saying that this is decades-old problems and these issues have been present for years and years and years.
17:32So why did this administration initiate changes in their first administration?
17:38Well, I think what we saw is the cracks that you are now seeing today were highlighted actually over the last four years.
17:47We were seeing more and more of it.
17:49And the president has said this a number of times.
17:51He had a plan to come into the second part of his administration because he knew what was going on to actually fix it.
17:59Some money, some billions of dollars were allocated from the last administration to this effort, and it was wasted.
18:06You don't see any result of any money that's been spent over four years.
18:10And by the way, they had no problem spending money.
18:12They spent a lot of money, and they didn't spend the money here.
18:14The president was understanding the cracks at the end of his administration and was going to fix it four years ago.
18:22But the last administration, they did nothing about it.
18:25And so as things get old, you get to the point where you're starting to hear some rattles in your car.
18:31That's probably the sign you can bring it to the shop.
18:34The last administration was hearing the rattles, and they basically kept driving and didn't do anything to fix it.
18:39Yeah, Grady.
18:41First question's on Newark specifically.
18:43Last week, I think it was, United's CEO said that FAA regularly approves more than 80 flights per hour at Newark,
18:51even though it also tells the airline that 77 is the maximum.
18:56So I guess the question is, is that true?
18:58And if so, why is it happening?
19:00And then what's the target for reduction?
19:04Yes, it's a great question.
19:08I would say to you, currently, we're running essentially 24 to 28 arrivals.
19:14There are a lot of things that factor into the way the controllers can safely manage air traffic in and out of Newark.
19:20So that could be staffing.
19:22That could be technology.
19:23That could be weather.
19:25And all of those decisions are made based on the ability to safely manage that traffic in there.
19:33So there's no 70 flights an hour.
19:37There are arrivals and departures when you do the math.
19:40But at the end of the day, what we're talking about is safe arrivals, safe departures.
19:44Right now, we're running a variable rate between 24 and 28.
19:47We expect that will continue.
19:49Again, when the construction project finishes at Newark, we will have an ability to kind of manage some additional traffic.
19:56But first and foremost, we're going to make sure our controllers are comfortable handling the workload they have
20:01and then making sure that all those other parameters are factored into the decision to accept arrivals.
20:08And what do you think an appropriate target is?
20:10I know you still have the meeting coming on Wednesday.
20:12Right.
20:13Do you have a number in mind going into it?
20:15So I'll start from a place of whatever's safe to bring in there.
20:19And we're going to work very closely with the carriers and the airport to make sure that that is appropriately communicated to traveling public as well.
20:28And Mr. Secretary, one for you.
20:30In his previous term, President Trump advocated for the privatization of ATC.
20:36I know you've said that you don't want to go that route.
20:38I'm wondering if you've spoken with the president about that and what changed since then.
20:43So I haven't specifically talked to the president about privatization.
20:47I don't recall whether he was supportive or not.
20:50But what we have to do is unify Congress.
20:54This is not a Democrat or Republican issue.
20:56It's an American issue.
20:58And privatization is an issue that divides people.
21:01And once the president and I and Chris are done building a brand new system and they're going to have a conversation about privatization, they can do that.
21:11We'll be long gone.
21:12But if we have that, nothing is going to happen here.
21:15And there's more risk to the airspace.
21:17I'm not going to have more risk to the airspace.
21:19And so I want to keep everyone together, R's and D's.
21:23We're all wearing the same American shirt.
21:25Let's get it done together.
21:27Yes.
21:27Hi.
21:28Allie from Bloomberg News.
21:29I wanted to ask about Wednesday's meeting and kind of piggyback off the question about flight reductions.
21:34So I saw that the notice mentioned the FAA was going to propose no more than 56 total operations per hour, 28 arrivals, 28 departures.
21:43When you're talking about reductions, is that going to be proportional based on how many flights the airline has out of Newark?
21:52And then also which airlines are attending Wednesday's meeting?
21:55So I don't have a list of the RSVPs just yet.
21:58I can tell you that based on those conversations that will occur and in our, I'll call it our target rate, all those airlines are going to have to come and explain what they need and making sure that we're doing this in a fair and open, transparent manner.
22:15So I don't want to get ahead of that conversation.
22:18I think it's fair to say that both the airport as well as the airlines are going to have strong feelings about what they need to get out of Newark.
22:27We will have those conversations.
22:29And as a result of that, we'll make those decisions public.
22:36I think it's important to note, we don't want to front run that conversation.
22:40Again, we're convening the airlines and having an open and constructive dialogue with them, we hope.
22:47Yes.
22:47Just wanted to clarify, so the move of N90 from Long Island to Philadelphia has kind of been in the works for years, as I'm sure you know.
22:58Are you specifically criticizing the way the move was done or the fact that the airspace was moved at all?
23:03What I'm criticizing is the fact that I don't believe the telecom was adequately tested, because if it had been tested, they would have seen the airs that they saw in October and November of last year under their administration, and we wouldn't be seeing the airs in the telecom right now.
23:23So they didn't test it.
23:25And before they moved the TRACON, they should have put the STARS system down at Philly.
23:30That would have hardened the system.
23:32And so there was a number of things that weren't done in preparation for the move, which has left us in the situation in which we now have these reductions and cancellations at Newark.
23:43Yes.
23:45Sam O'Gazalak of Politico.
23:47You mentioned the backup system at the Philly TRACON and then also a software patch on Friday.
23:51Are those the same things, or could you distinguish what the differences are, if there are any?
23:57So do I want to take this?
23:59Do you want to go?
24:00Yes, sir.
24:01I'll try it, and then if I get it.
24:02So because the telecom is so fast coming in, and we have to slow it down, when the primary line went down and we switched to the backup line,
24:19the system we have in place was not adequately slowing down the feed.
24:26And so it overloaded that line, and so it overloaded that line, and it went down.
24:30But again, we are trying to slow speeds down to 1990 speeds for 1980 equipment.
24:41So we're going to build new high-speed, resilient fiber lines, but we also then need technology from today that can take the speeds.
24:53And so because they're mismatched, the second line got overloaded and went down.
24:59That's what happened both two weeks ago and on Friday morning.
25:05Did I get that right, Frank?
25:06Am I close?
25:07All right.
25:08So is the backup system operational right now?
25:11I know the software patch has been switched.
25:12So the software patch actually worked on Sunday morning.
25:16So that's why we didn't lose radar.
25:18We didn't lose telecom on Sunday morning.
25:20But the primary line went down, and when that happened the prior two times, the whole system went down for 30 seconds.
25:27So the controllers were concerned, and that's why they did a ground stop for 45 minutes.
25:32However, we didn't lose telecom, and we didn't lose scopes this Sunday.
25:36The backup line and the fix worked, so the backup line was functioning the way it is supposed to.
25:42Does that make sense?
25:43Yeah.
25:43Okay.
25:44Yes.
25:44Yeah, Dave Sherwoodson from Reuters.
25:46So Verizon has a $2.4 billion contract the FAA signed in 2023 to replace the copper requirement.
25:53Why do you think it hasn't happened faster, and what's the medium-term solution?
25:57You mentioned the software patch, the short-term fix, but when do we have insurance that the system is moderate enough,
26:03at Newark at least, to ensure that this doesn't happen again?
26:06They signed a $2.4 billion contract the last administration did with Verizon.
26:11Do you know how long it was going to take to actually implement that $2.4 billion contract,
26:16which, by the way, was not enough money to build out fiber throughout the whole system?
26:21It was a 15-year contract.
26:24So this contract was just signed.
26:26They have another 12 years to complete the work, which was idiotic from the last administration.
26:30And so we're trying to repurpose and get Verizon to move more quickly.
26:35They've been good partners.
26:37They're trying to accommodate the needs of the FAA and the flying public.
26:42And so, again, we're going to need more money on the telecom front.
26:46That was just a part of it, and we can use some of that money for what work we're doing here.
26:52That was the first part of your question.
26:53The second part was?
26:54I know this current just requires a lot of maintenance.
26:57I think some of these outers may have gone down when maintenance was occurring.
26:59So what's the roadmap to a medium-term solution where we don't have these type of outages?
27:06Will the backup system be enough?
27:07So in Newark, we've taken out the connections at the airports that were copper.
27:14We've made them now fiber.
27:16So we have fiber connections at the airports.
27:19We're testing those right now.
27:21We go through a two-week test period before we flip the switch.
27:25End of May, we should be able to flip the switch and bring the fiber online.
27:30But we're having problems with some of the lines we're currently using.
27:35So we are pushing our contractors to actually fix these telecom issues that we have right now.
27:45And it was supposed to be the end of the summer.
27:47I don't want to give you a date because you're going to hold me to it.
27:50But we are pushing them to radically speed up the time frame in which they can deliver new telecom into the Philly TRACON,
27:58which should resolve the issues that we're experiencing over the last two weeks.
28:03Yes?
28:03You have time for one or two more.
28:04Yeah.
28:05Two questions.
28:06One is, I know you said Newark will be a priority.
28:10Will it be the number one priority given the confluence of problems that we've seen?
28:14So I think we're going to have to do more than one location at a time.
28:21But, yes, priority number one is going to be Newark.
28:27And then I understand you're placing a lot of the blame on the previous administration,
28:31but these problems are happening now under the second administration.
28:36Are you just unlucky, or are there some real issues that need to be addressed under this current administration?
28:42If you buy a used car, you drive it home, and go to bed, wake up the next morning, drive to the store, and it breaks down,
28:50is it your fault, or is it the guy that you bought it from sold you a lemon?
28:54Right?
28:54So we have to recognize, again, because I think a lot of the media tries to say,
28:58oh, this infrastructure is failing under the first 100 days of the Trump administration or Sean Duffy as secretary.
29:06And I think that is a known falsehood, known lie by the media.
29:11You all know that it's been cracking.
29:13Those of you who cover aviation, there's been telltale signs, there's been conversations,
29:19there's been congressional hearings on this.
29:21And the fact that the last administration did nothing should be reported.
29:24The fact that they spent $1.2 trillion and really invested zero in this massive infrastructure build
29:33that America needs, aviation needs, and they didn't pay attention to it at all.
29:37That they would have moved the TRACON from N-90 down to Philly and wouldn't harden the network
29:43and wouldn't move the STARS system down to Philly shows, I think, a lack of focus.
29:49And maybe when you work from home or maybe when you work from Michigan as the secretary,
29:54you're not focused on the real issues that are taking place throughout the airspace.
29:58And that's what was happening at this department.
30:01They were focused on what we call a cockpit versus a flight deck.
30:05We had to change notice to airmen to notice to airmission, right?
30:10That was the focus as opposed to you have a cracking system and let's get the money to fix it
30:15or let's at least start the fix in that system.
30:18They didn't do that.
30:20And so I've inherited it.
30:22The Trump administration has inherited it.
30:24Donald Trump has said, we are going to fix it.
30:26We are not going to pass it off.
30:28So we are not going to do what they did.
30:31And so I fully embrace, as you can see, we've developed a plan.
30:35We've put out a plan.
30:37We've told the Congress this is what we have to do.
30:39We are not shying away from any problems.
30:41But I think it's important to recognize why we have the problems.
30:46You didn't get old, cracking infrastructure in 100 days.
30:50It came from the four years before where they chose to do nothing.
30:54And so we're going to fix it.
30:58The Congress has to help.
31:00And if they do, we're going to fix it quickly.
31:03They gave us the problem.
31:04We have the results in this administration.
31:07And, again, we're going to continue to update you.
31:09If there's any other issues at Newark, we want to be transparent.
31:12We want to let you know what infrastructure problems there are.
31:15If there's telecom issues, we're going to let you know what those are.
31:18And we'll keep you apprised of how we're going to fix the issues that arise.
31:23Hopefully we're done.
31:25I'm not going to tell you we're done.
31:26My hope is that we're done.
31:28But as Chris Rushlow indicated, we are about safety.
31:33And I know there's frustration about the number of flights at Newark.
31:36I get that.
31:37I fly out of Newark.
31:38My wife flies out of Newark.
31:39My kids fly out of Newark.
31:41It's frustrating.
31:42But, again, we're all about safety.
31:44Safety is the mission.
31:46And so if we can only do 24 to 28 flights an hour, that's all we're going to do to feel like we are adequate in the mission of keeping people safe going from point A to point B.
31:59And with that, thank you all for coming.
32:00We'll keep you updated as things develop.