Despite the Federal Aviation Administration reducing Newark Liberty International Airport’s flight capacity by nearly a quarter, New Jersey’s largest airport still suffered more than 100 delays on the Friday morning to begin Memorial Day weekend.
Earlier this week, the FAA ordered Newark to reduce its hourly flight capacity from 77 takeoffs and landings to 56 for the next three weeks. The move comes as the airport has seen severe delays because of a shortage of air traffic controllers, bad weather and a closed runway.
“We should stop seeing the last-minute cancellations due to FAA staffing challenges,” said Sarah McKeon, director of the aviation department at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.” That should allow people to best plan for what they need to do.”
But there remained plenty of delays on Friday. One traveler said he chose Newark Airport because it’s “cheaper, more cost effective to fly out of here.”
“Now we’re paying for it,” he said. “So far, we’re being told 30 minutes, but the plane has not yet taken off from Cincinnati, the plane that’s supposed to take us back to Cincinnati.”
AAA expects a record number of travelers this holiday weekend, with the bulk of them traveling via car. But the ones who fly could be affected by inclement weather around New Jersey, even if they’re nowhere near the Garden State.
“Roughly 75% of all nationwide air traffic control delays due to weather start in New York, because of the hub-and-spoke system and the fact that we have five airports here,” said Robert Sinclair Jr., senior manager of public affairs at AAA Northeast. “If New York sneezes, the rest of the country catches a cold.”
