It’s been a nightmarish week for vacationers at Newark Liberty International Airport (EWR). A mixture of air visitors management tools failures and staffing shortages have fueled mass flight delays, and led the airport’s largest airline to cancel dozens of daily flights over the approaching weeks.
The issues may proceed to plague passengers because the busy summer season journey season attracts nearer.
Air visitors management issues re-surface
Thousands of flights out and in of EWR have been impacted by the disruptions in latest days. Close to half of all inbound planes to Newark confronted delays on Saturday alone, in keeping with information from FlightAware.
Those disruptions got here because the FAA reported staffing shortages on the air visitors management facility that governs Newark’s airspace — and on the heels of every week that noticed a myriad of expertise outages on the company.
Thunderstorms made issues worse this weekend, as did development to the airport’s busiest runway for departures, which will probably be closed till the center of June.
Another 57 flights at Newark have been canceled by late afternoon on Sunday, in keeping with Flight Aware.
United sends letter to prospects
Amid the mounting issues, United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby penned a letter to prospects on Friday, asserting the service — which has a significant hub at EWR — would cancel 35 daily spherical trips from the airport in hopes of avoiding additional cascading issues.
In his letter Friday, Kirby referenced longstanding air visitors management staffing shortages which, TPG reported in February, have the FAA short-staffed by 1000’s of fully-certified controllers.
“The long-simmering FAA challenges boiled over this week,” Kirby wrote, citing latest tools failures, and noting that 20% of controllers “walked off the job” in latest days.
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Neither the FAA nor the nation’s high air visitors controllers union — contacted by TPG for remark Sunday — elaborated on that characterization by Kirby.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy has advocated for overhauling the nation’s air visitors management infrastructure and upping its controller hiring efforts.
“It’s unacceptable,” Duffy wrote on social media Friday concerning the latest disruptions. “We are working to harden the system. But this is why it’s critical that we build an all-new air traffic control system.
Newark disruptions persist
In the meantime, though, what is clear is that the delays at Newark aren’t subsiding.
Beyond United’s planned schedule reductions, the airport saw more than 600 departures face delays since Friday, after mass disruptions over the course of several days last week, per FlightAware..
Sunday didn’t look much better, with the FAA projecting maximum delays of more than four hours, as of 2 p.m. EDT — and average delays topping two hours, owed to staffing shortages, the agency reported.
“I might not categorize it as unsafe,” Michael McCormick, a 30-year veteran of the FAA, told TPG Sunday.
“However, it could be very irritating for passengers with most arrival delays exceeding 4 hours into Newark,” McCormick, now on the faculty at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, added.
United issues travel waivers
United issued a travel advisory that allowed passengers with trips booked through Monday to make free changes — even on ordinarily restrictive basic economy tickets — for flights through both Newark and the region’s other major airports.
Travelers flying through the airport in the coming weeks should keep an eye out for similar advisories that could allow extra flexibility to re-route or re-book during periods of peak trouble.
Storms wreak havoc elsewhere this weekend
Adding to an already messy weekend for travel, stormy conditions across a large swath of the country fueled nearly 6,000 flight delays Saturday, after 8,200-plus flights were delayed Friday, per FlightAware.
Houston’s George Bush Intercontinental Airport (IAH), Charlotte Douglas International Airport (CLT) and Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport (ATL) were among the busy hubs hardest hit.
Should you book flights to or from Newark?
Beyond this weekend, travelers will surely question whether they can count on flights to and from Newark to depart and arrive on time over the coming months.
United certainly has its doubts — a big reason why the carrier decided to reduce its schedule at the airport, with no timetable on how long the removal of nearly three-dozen daily flights will last.
“It’s disappointing to make additional cuts to an already diminished schedule at Newark,” Kirby wrote Friday. “But since there is no such thing as a method to resolve the near-term structural FAA staffing issues, we really feel like there is no such thing as a different selection as a way to defend our prospects.”
So, what should customers do, amid those concerns about delays at Newark?
Pick a different connecting airport
If you’re booking a flight on United and know you’ll have to make a connection somewhere, vet your options. If United was offering me a connection at Newark — or an alternative itinerary routed through its Dulles International Airport (IAD) hub near Washington — I’d probably opt for the latter, at the moment, if the price was comparable.
Plan proactively: nonstop and early flights
If I were going to fly through Newark right now, I’d plan proactively.
I’d book the earliest departure of the day, which is far less likely to be affected by thunderstorms. Stormy weather tends to exacerbate air traffic control staffing hurdles, since it complicates the departure and arrivals schedules.
In fact, for that reason, selecting early-morning flights are a good rule of thumb throughout the peak thunderstorm season — even if it does mean your alarm goes off at the crack of dawn.
Specific to EWR, I’d opt for nonstop flights out of the airport over the coming weeks so that, even if I got delayed by an hour or two, I wouldn’t risk missing a connecting flight in another city.
Book with a credit card that has travel insurance
Weather and air traffic control staffing are both factors typically deemed “exterior the airline’s management,” which implies your airline possible would not be on the hook to pay in case you get stranded and caught in a resort in a single day.
That’s the place a bank card that has journey insurance coverage protections can turn out to be useful, by permitting you to say reimbursement for surprising prices attributable to a journey disruption.
Just bear in mind: Typically it’s a must to guide your journey with that card as a way to make a profitable declare.
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