Despite the system outage at Newark Liberty International Airport that has delayed flights into this week, air traffic controllers tasked with airport’s logistics already have a ridiculously hard job, a former United Airlines pilot said.
“I equate a good, A-level, traffic controller that can handle a place like Newark, JFK, LAX, San Francisco, to a three dimensional chess player who can juggle a chainsaw, an axe, a sword, a razor blade with his eyes closed,” Aero Consulting Experts CEO and a former United pilot Ross Aimer told Fortune.
A supervisor, three controllers, and a trainee were among those who took the 45-day leave, another air traffic controller told CNN.
NATCA did not return Fortune’s request for comment.
“It takes a long time to train [an] air traffic controller,” Aimer said.
“A lot of these guys, they burn out,” Aimer said. “They can’t finish the training, which is very grueling,”
Due to the staffing shortage in Newark, United Airlines pulled 35 round-trip flights to the airport.
Currently the Philadelphia-based tower in charge of Newark has “22 fully certified controllers and 21 controllers and supervisors in training,” according to an FAA statement obtained by Fortune.
“We have a healthy pipeline with training classes filled through July 2026,” The FAA wrote.
