1 hour ago
United Airlines planes sit on the tarmac at Newark Liberty Airport in Newark, New Jersey, on March 18, 2026.
Kena Betancur | AFP | Getty Images
A Verizon cable that was cut in New Jersey during construction snarled air travel in the New York area and Philadelphia on Monday.
The Federal Aviation Administration delayed or canceled hundreds of flights bound for Newark, New Jersey, and Philadelphia and forced close to 70 planes to divert to other airports. As of 1 p.m. ET, the disruptions had spread to New York City, where flights into LaGuardia Airport and John F. Kennedy Airport were also halted by the FAA.
"We have a fiber cable running adjacent to an Amtrak rail line in New Jersey. Construction contractors working in the area dug up and cut our cable," Verizon said in a statement. "Verizon's facilities were fully functional up to that point. Verizon bears no responsibility for this incident."
The company said it "immediately deployed our technicians to the scene" and added that it was "actively working to repair the damaged cable and restore connectivity as quickly as possible."
The FAA halted flights into Newark Liberty Airport, United Airlines' busiest international hub, as well as Philadelphia Airport and New Jersey's Teterboro Airport "due to issues with some frequencies at Philadelphia TRACON."
That Terminal Radar Approach Control, or TRACON, facility, guides planes in and out of Newark and Philadelphia.
United waived flight change fees for travelers affected by the disruption.
Roughly 250 flights in and out of Newark were delayed, more than a fifth of the day's schedule, according to FlightAware.
As of about 1 p.m. ET, 67 flights bound for Newark were forced to divert, according to Flightradar24, including international flights from Iceland, Egypt, Greece, Spain and France.
A United flight from Berlin diverted to Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport, while an SAS flight from Stockholm bound for Newark was sent to Washington Dulles Airport.
Aging air traffic control equipment and technology issues have vexed airline executives for years. The Trump administration last year announced a multibillion-dollar overhaul of U.S. air traffic control equipment and resources.
On Monday, the Transportation Department and FAA unveiled a new artificial intelligence-powered tool meant to analyze data to minimize flight delays, rolling it out first in Washington, D.C.
