Newark Airport Flight Cancellations: What to Know as Safety Questioned

Flight delays and cancellations at Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey persisted on Monday after hundreds of customers were stranded over the weekend due to an array of issues.

Why It Matters

Federal government budget cuts combined with Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) equipment problems, air traffic controller staffing shortages and ongoing runway construction, are all being pointed to as reasons for hundreds of flight delays and cancellations—especially for those flying United Airlines, which uses Newark as its primary East Coast hub.

What To Know

Delays and cancellations continued Monday, with online flight tracker FlightAware citing 156 delays into or out of Newark and 99 cancellations as of about 10 a.m. ET.

There were 423 delays and 138 cancellations as of Sunday evening, according to CBS News, with arriving flights delayed up to four hours and departures delaying for more than 30 minutes. That exceeded the 377 delays and 82 cancellations from Saturday.

United Airlines Flight Status

These recent developments come on the heels of United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby saying in a statement on Friday that the airline had “no other choice” but to remove 35 roundtrip flights per day from its Newark schedule starting this past weekend.

Kirby attributed the current chaos to “long-simmering FAA challenges [that] boiled over this week,” including over approximately 20 percent of air traffic controllers at Newark who “walked off the job.”

“These challenges are not new to Newark,” Kirby said. “United has been urging the US government for years to use its authority to effectively limit the number of flights to what the airport can realistically handle. Past failure to make those changes had led to the circumstances that United and, most importantly, our customers now face.”

A United Airlines spokesperson declined to comment further to Newsweek on Monday, referring only to Kirby’s previous remarks.

United Airlines Flight Status

As of about 10:30 a.m. ET Monday, 38 United Airlines flights were cancelled and 60 were delayed. United takes passengers to 76 different U.S. cities and 81 international destinations.

What Is Going on at Newark Airport?

“It is not a safe situation right now for the flying public,” a federal air safety employee reportedly told NBC News correspondent Tom Costello over the weekend, adding: “Don’t fly into Newark. Avoid Newark at all costs.”

A spokesperson for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which operates Newark Liberty International Airport (EWR) as well as John F. Kennedy International, LaGuardia, Stewart and Teterboro airports, said delays and cancellations were due to adverse weather conditions.

“The Port Authority has invested billions to modernize Newark Liberty, but those improvements depend on a fully staffed and modern federal air traffic system,” a spokesperson told Newsweek on Monday. “We continue to urge the FAA to address ongoing staffing shortages and accelerate long-overdue technology upgrades that continue to cause delays in the nation’s busiest air corridor.”

The “significant disruptions” plaguing the airport on Monday morning led to inbound flights facing average delays of up to 239 minutes due to low ceilings reducing visibility. Departing flights are reportedly experiencing average delays of approximately 45 minutes, which are expected to continue throughout Monday.

To manage congestion and maintain safety, the FAA has implemented a Ground Delay Program (GDP) that is currently in effect until 2:59 p.m. ET. Officials say this should help minimize airborne delays by spacing out arriving flights and holding some departures at origin airports.

Newark continues to assess the situation and is working with airline partners, the FAA, and other stakeholders to support operations and assist impacted passengers, officials added.

What People Are Saying

U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy after unveiling boosted air traffic controller plan on May 1: “In our first 100 days, this administration has made more progress on addressing the air traffic controller shortage than the last one did in four years. But there’s more work to be done to secure our skies. Today’s actions will supercharge the air traffic controller workforce from both retention and hiring side of the equation – bringing us one step closer to reversing decades of staffing declines.”

New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy on X, formerly Twitter, on Saturday: “The flight delays and cancellations over the past few days at @EWRairport have been completely and utterly unacceptable. I know @SecDuffy is committed to addressing our nationwide air traffic controller shortage by supercharging hiring. The past few days have shown us exactly why we need to reverse the decades of staffing decline at the FAA.”

What Happens Next?

Duffy said last week that the FAA plans to offer financial incentives to help with staffing shortages at the agency and shore up its workforce, according to NBC New York.