Flyers Avoiding Newark Airport Over Safety Fears
Rattled flyers are deciding that trips through Newark just aren’t worth it.
For days, red cancellation signs have flashed across the airport’s boards and flights have been delayed, leaving travelers stranded. And then there was the revelation about an unsettling lapse: a 90-second breakdown in radio contact for air traffic controllers, which passed safely but had the potential for catastrophe.
A worker shortage, aging technology and runway construction mean a fix for the chaos is unlikely to come soon. The tumult, coming in the wake of a series of high-profile aviation incidents across the US, is now leading travelers to reconsider flying out of the New Jersey hub at all.
Related: Newark Radar Failure Left Controllers Blind for 90 Seconds
“I feel a dire need for me to change my travel plans,” said Camille Onuoha, a 29-year-old who travels from Atlanta to visit her family in New Jersey’s Bergen County almost every month. She now plans to avoid Newark “at all costs,” opting to double her driving time by flying in and out of New York’s LaGuardia Airport instead.
More than 580 flights were cancelled or delayed on Monday, and 624 flights on Sunday, according to FlightAware. Over 520 were affected on Tuesday. United is offering affected passengers options to rebook trips through LaGuardia or Philadelphia without charging fees or fare differences.
Related: A Look at Recent Aircraft Tragedies, Mishaps and Close Calls
The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which operates the airport, referred all questions to the FAA or United. US Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said it was safe to fly into and out of Newark, as his agency outlined plans to improve technology infrastructure and staffing levels for the air-traffic controllers that oversee flights bound for the airport.
That hasn’t calmed people such as Elajah Vasquez, a New Jersey resident who says she won’t fly out of Newark until there are major changes implemented. She has already rebooked a flight to Lubbock, Texas, to travel out of LaGuardia, and says she has multiple other planned trips that will need to be shifted because of safety worries.
“I feel very uneasy, especially given the issues with airplanes already happening, and disappointed,” she said. “For Newark to be an international airport and clearly lack stable infrastructure is a testament to the country’s standing.”
Newark is integral to the air transportation system in the New York area, which means its problems have ripple effects, said Michael McCormick, associate professor and program coordinator of the air-traffic management program at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University.
“However New York goes, so goes the rest of the country,” McCormick said. “If Newark is not running well, that means New York is not running well, which means the rest of the air traffic system is not going to run well.”
Adding to the chaos unfolding across airports, officials have warned travelers to expect even more delays this week as requirements for new federally approved “Real ID” identification cards go into effect on Wednesday.
The flying public has become increasingly jittery over the past year following a series of aviation accidents and harrowing near-misses. Boeing Co. faced some passengers’ reluctance to board its planes after a 737 Max aircraft was involved in an almost-catastrophic accident in early 2024, highlighting how quickly public sentiment can turn against a company — or in the case of Newark, an airport.
Mary Rosalva, who used to work as a cleaner at Newark airport, said she is shocked at the state of the facility and has never seen travel disruptions like the ones happening now. In the past few days, her TikTok feed has been flooded with videos about the turmoil and panicked passengers changing their flights.
The 30-year-old has tickets to fly to Las Vegas for a Beyoncé concert in July, and is contemplating traveling instead from another New York airport or Philadelphia.
“It’s a little scary because we’ve been seeing a lot of airplane crashes over the course of the year,” Rosalva said about the shortage of air-control staff. “You wouldn’t think that this would happen in Newark.”
On Sunday, what was supposed to be a three to four hour travel day turned into a 14-hour travel nightmare for Lissette Pedreiras as she was coming home from Miami to Bridgewater, New Jersey, after a cruise.
Her original flight was set to take off at 5:20 p.m., but as the time got closer there were no plane or gate agents in sight. She said passengers received little communication on the delays, leaving them in limbo for hours until the plane finally took off around midnight.
Pedreiras, 43, has plans to fly out of Newark in August, but is now debating switching to another airport to avoid the mess, especially since she’ll be traveling with kids.
Onuoha, the Atlanta traveler, says those types of delays on her monthly trips would be deeply disruptive. She plans to continue flying through LaGuardia until conditions improve at Newark.
“I really hope that things do change in the future with staffing,” she said.
Top photo: Workers in the United Airlines Station Operation Center at Newark airport.