Long a New York Punchline, Newark Airport Is Getting Even Worse
Technology outage, construction and staffing shortages led to a week from hell for travelers at the New Jersey hub
NEWARK, N.J.–Families huddled on Mickey Mouse-printed suitcases. Businessmen shouted into phones with their offices trying to rebook flights. Strangers commiserated over shared indignities. Airline employees yelled for passengers to board a shuttle that would take them to another airport two rivers away.
This wasn’t a nationwide air-travel meltdown or storm-induced snarl. It was just another Thursday at Newark Liberty International Airport.
Newark has long been a punchline among travelers in the tri-state area, a launchpad to be avoided at all costs. It routinely tops rankings of large airports in flight delays and cancellations. It is hard to get to and harder to get around.
“The American people are reasonable, but if we have to spend the night sleeping on a bench in the Newark airport we will grab a flag and join the revolution like an extra in Les Miz,” late-night television host Stephen Colbert joked during a government shutdown in 2019.
But over the past few days, Newark achieved the unthinkable: It got worse.
Newark’s week started badly with an air-traffic technology outage that disrupted flights. Runway construction and air-traffic control staffing issues extended the pain, prompting hundreds of flight delays and cancellations this week alone, according to travel analytics company FlightAware.
For travelers, there’s no end in clear sight, especially as the summer months and their inclement weather add to the airport’s troubles.
Shawn Ahmad and his wife were traveling from their home in Philadelphia to Louisville, Ky., to attend this weekend’s Kentucky Derby. Originally they planned to drive. But when they saw that Spirit Airlines was offering cheap airfares out of Newark, they took the bait.
Big mistake.
Their Thursday morning flight was delayed three times before it was listed as “interrupted.” Ahmad said an airline employee told them the hiccup was due to the staffing issues.
Spirit offered to rebook the couple on flights the next day, but they decided to rent a car after all and drive. “We just don’t want the same thing to happen tomorrow,” he said.
Some of the criticism of Newark can be chalked up to snobbery. New Yorkers of a certain ilk see crossing the Hudson into New Jersey to board a plane as a bridge too far, even if parts of Manhattan are geographically closer to Newark than they are to John F. Kennedy International Airport.
New York City Mayor Fiorello La Guardia once refused to get off a plane at Newark, complaining that his TWA ticket from Chicago listed New York as the destination, not New Jersey.
But Newark’s operational problems are very real. In the last Wall Street Journal rankings of best large airports, Newark came in last based on scores for reliability, convenience and value.
Yehong Li, a 31-year-old university researcher, lives in nearby Jersey City and travels once or twice a month. In recent months, he has opted to make the arduous trek all the way to JFK in the far reaches of Queens rather than deal with the potential for hiccups flying out of Newark.
But when he does travel out of Newark, he doesn’t go in blind. Before leaving his house, he checks his airline, social media and flight-tracking apps. “These days you’ve got to be ahead of schedule changes,” he says.
On Monday afternoon, Li was supposed to fly to San Diego out of Newark. When he noticed his flight was delayed due to the system outage, he opted to rebook for the next day, even though his new itinerary included a layover in Dallas.
“I didn’t want to spend the whole day at the airport,” he says. His original flight ended up being delayed more than five hours, he says.
After flare-ups in 2023, United scaled back flying at Newark to ease congestion and took other steps to shore up its operation. The domestic flight cancellation rate at the airport edged down last year, dropping below prepandemic levels, according to government data. But air-traffic control problems keep cropping up.
Cancellations and delays aren’t Newark travelers’ only lament. Some have complained about challenges navigating to or around the airport for airlines and fliers alike.
Newark’s location near busy roadways has hampered the airport’s ability to expand. The limited number of gates forces airlines to park aircraft in “parking lots” away from the terminals. And when a runway needs to be surfaced, as is currently the case, it slows down operations.
The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which operates the airport, has committed to a multibillion-dollar plan to overhaul Newark. It opened a new Terminal A in 2023, and announced plans last year to build a replacement for Terminal B. The Port Authority is also replacing the AirTrain system that connects the airport’s three terminals to parking garages and a nearby rail station.
“Our investments today are laying the foundation for the airport of tomorrow,” the Port Authority said in an email.
Since Newark’s new Terminal A opened, a common complaint is that the terminal isn’t directly serviced by the airport’s AirTrain system. Instead, people looking to go in or out of the terminal via the AirTrain must either walk more than 10 minutes to the closest stop at a nearby parking garage or take a shuttle bus.
Then there’s the unavoidable issue of Newark being located in New Jersey, which can seem very distant for the New York clientele the airport serves. Two years ago, the airport officially lost its New York City designation by the International Air Transport Association—a technical change largely invisible to consumers that nonetheless prompted outrage among Garden State residents.
United, which dominates Newark, has tried to counter Newark’s reputation as out of the way and inconvenient, at times mounting GPS-based trackers on top of New York City taxis to display live travel times to Newark and JFK.
In the 1990s, Continental Airlines plastered the city with advertisements hoping to convince New Yorkers to embrace Newark as their own. “Need to feel like a real New Yorker? Eat a bagel on your way to Newark,” one read. Others highlighted the hassles of getting to JFK: “The Road to JFK is Paved and Repaved With Good Intentions.”
The ads sparked blowback from then-mayor Rudolph Giuliani, who complained they were negative and disparaging of New York.
United, which acquired Continental in 2012, went all in on Newark a decade ago when it pulled out of JFK and struck a deal to acquire Delta’s slots at the airport.
United CEO Scott Kirby, who joined United after that, has urged people to give Newark a shot. Still, he has long said the move to leave JFK was a mistake. Some corporate customers preferred JFK and switched airlines.
On Friday after the latest problems, Kirby wrote in a message posted on United’s website that the airline will cancel 35 daily round trip flights at Newark starting this weekend after a group of air-traffic controllers took leave following equipment outages:
“Newark airport cannot handle the number of planes that are scheduled to operate there in the weeks and months ahead.”