US transportation secretary changed wife’s flight from Newark after ongoing issues at airport

‘I fly out of Newark all the time, my family flies out of Newark,’ said Sean Duffy before admitting he switched his wife’s flight from Newark to LaGuardia. Photograph: Julia Demaree Nikhinson/AP

Sean Duffy, the Trump administration’s transportation secretary, has revealed that he switched flights for his wife this week to help her avoid flying out of beleaguered Newark Liberty, one of the busiest airports in the New York area.

Duffy’s disclosure on Monday followed his repeated assurances to the American public that it is safe to fly from Newark, despite a spate of dramatic outages affecting the airport’s radar systems that is causing ongoing disruption and delays. On Sunday, the transportation secretary went on NBC News’s Meet the Press and insisted Newark was safe.