Sean Duffy, the U.S. transportation secretary, told a radio show host that he switched flights for his wife to help her avoid flying out of Newark Liberty airport, one day after claiming it was safe to fly from there, reports The Guardian.

On May 11, Duffy told NBC News’s Meet the Press that Newark was safe, despite a spate of dramatic outages affecting the airport’s radar systems. “It is,” he insisted. “I fly out of Newark all the time, my family flies out of Newark.”

But on May 12, he told conservative radio host David Webb on SiriusXM, he said, “My wife was flying out of Newark tomorrow, I switched her flight to LaGuardia,” in comments first reported by Gizmodo.

The airport has been hampered for several months by technical glitches, combined with a shortage of air traffic controllers, along with runway construction. In recent weeks it has suffered three radar outages because of computer problems, traumatizing its staff and causing disruption to flights.

The latest communications blackout on May 9 lasted for 90 seconds, during which time contact between the control tower and planes was lost.

Staff shortages have also become severe. On Monday the airport’s scheduled roster of 14 air traffic controllers was down to just three, leading to delays in flights of up to seven hours.

The Guardian says the ongoing travails at Newark have presented Duffy and the Trump administration with a messaging problem. The transportation secretary has tried to offload blame on the previous presidency of Joe Biden, but at the same time he has attempted to reassure passengers while promising a "brand new air traffic control system."