The skies above the Garden State are not so friendly this weekend if you’re flying into or out of New Jersey’s Newark Liberty Airport.
Delays averaged just under two hours out of Newark by late Saturday afternoon, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.
United CEO Scott Kirby said his airline had to cancel dozens of flights at Newark following a chaotic week of travel that left some passengers dealing with massive delays.
“United is committed to doing absolutely everything in our power to minimize the impact that this will have on customers and so we are unilaterally cancelling 35 roundtrip flights per day from our Newark schedule starting this weekend,” Kirby’s statement said.
In addition to United, hundreds more flights at Newark were completely canceled, and dozens more were diverted to other airports because of the chaotic scene in New Jersey.
Some of the main issues causing travel disruptions involved construction, several instances of technical equipment failure and understaffing. One of the runways at Newark is closed until mid-June because of construction, limiting the operation capacity to the 76 U.S. cities and 81 international countries it services.
Jaki Maurey-Delaunay experienced delays as she was flying in from London Saturday afternoon with her son.
“We live in London, family is important to us. It’s not a cheap ticket so every minute counts for us,” she said.
The pair were traveling to Newark just for 24 hours to make a family event.
“I got an alert Thursday. They were asking me if I wanted to change my flight. They were actually sending an alert asking if I wanted to change my flight because of congestion but I was like, ‘I can’t change my flight, I need to get there’. So I was a bit panicked getting to the airport,” she said.
The extreme delays this week rippled out to other airports across the country and altered thousands of passengers’ travel plans.
There have also been staffing issues at the Philadelphia TRACON, a traffic control facility that guides flights in and out of Newark.
“Keep in mind, this particular air traffic control facility has been chronically understaffed for years and without these controllers, it’s now clear — and the FAA tells us — that Newark airport cannot handle the number of planes that are scheduled to operate there in the weeks and months ahead,” Kirby said.
The staffing issues, particularly involving air traffic controllers, are a nationwide problem.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said there were some 3,000 vacant positions nationwide and he’s planning to roll out a strategy to incentivize the labor force.
According to a statement released by the FAA, the plan includes financial incentives to try and ease the declining workforce numbers.
The plan also includes recruiting military controllers, providing bonuses for academy graduates and working with controllers nearing the end of their career to attempt to get them to stay until the required retirement age of 56.
