Ironically, just days after United Airlines boasted about improved operational reliability at Newark Liberty International Airport, a heavy summer storm has caused a meltdown, with thousands of passengers facing extreme tarmac delays and cancellations.
Newark Meltdown Due To Summer Storm: Passengers Trapped On Planes, Wait Hours For Gate
It was a rough day at Newark yesterday and today is shaping up to be bad as well. Yesterday, 29% of flights from Newark were cancelled (183 flights) and 28% were delayed (179 flights).
This morning, 13% of flights from Newark (82 flights) have already been cancelled and 7% delayed (48 flights).
Zach Griff noted the meltdown yesterday afternoon, and some of the delays are really stunning.
For example, a Chicago-Newark flight sat for over five hours on the ground in Newark before finally reaching a gate:
Griff also notes a flight from Louisville-Newark that sat for over five hours:
Newark was not alone–34% of flights from New York LaGuardia were cancelled yesterday and 25% delayed. But the tarmac delays at Newark were particularly bad. Washington National, Philadelphia, and New York JFK also faced horrific weather-related delays yesterday.
Is It Legal To Keep People Waiting On The Tarmac?
In the USA, while the tarmac delay limit for domestic flights is three hours and four hours for international flights (passengers must be given the option to deboard once those limits have been exceeded), there are three exceptions:
- safety
- security
- air traffic control-related reasons
The “safety” exception is broad (and not preicley defined), but since airport operations shut down during thunderstorms due to safety concerns over lightning, I’d argue that carriers did not run afoul of US law by holding passengers hostage on planes.
Was there a better solution? I’m not certain…not when lightning creates a genuine risk to those outside.
What A Difference A Week Makes
Just four days ago, United Airlines sent out a rather triumphant email to Live And Let’s Fly boasting that “Newark continues to be the most on-time of the New York City area airports since the runway reopened on June 2nd,” and adding:
From July 4 to July 10:
- United flights at Newark had the best on-time arrival performance across airlines at JFK and LaGuardia.
- United flights departing Newark arrived at their destinations on time more often than flights departing JFK and LaGuardia.
- Despite the severe summer weather over the past week, United flights at Newark had the lowest cancellation rate in comparison to JFK and LaGuardia, with a 97.3% completion rate.
What a difference a week makes…
CONCLUSION
Horrific storms have pummeled the Eastern Seaboard and hit the New York City area particularly hard. United in particular has been hit hard at Newark, with passengers facing delays, in some cases, of over five hours to get a gate. Today is shaping up to be bad as well, even as the storms move.
Have you been impacted by the bad weather?
my brother flew into newark yesterday at around 4 pm and even though he got a gate they weren’t able to unload the bags for 5 hours, also a bunch of the roads outside the airport (turnpike/1-9) were completely flooded so not a great scene
I thought UAL would have diverted flights from Newark to Washington Dulles, which UAL had all the resources (ground crews, under-utilized gates, etc.) to handle extra flights.
Flew through EWR Sunday. My delay for connecting flight back home was longer than my flight from Europe. Total meltdown. Was fortunate enough not to get cancelled as Monday would have been worse.
Don’t look forward to flying back through there in 3 weeks.
I was scheduled to fly from California-DEN-EWR-PDL yesterday but got stuck in DEN. The rolling delays started until finally all flights to EWR were canceled.
A lovely woman in the United Lounge helped reroute me DEN-IAD-LIS-PDL. It’s a longer route but gets me there 30 hours late, but it was the best possible under the circumstances, plus I got Polaris. She told me to “Forget Newark”. It must have been a true fiasco.
I did the EWR-PDL flight last year. Trust me you ended up winning. All they offer on that flight is a domestic 737max8 which they sell as premium plus.
Let me know what you think of the cow poop smell on the entire island lol
Some great hikes though and excellent property Sensi Azores Nature & Spa
@KC: “Let me know what you think of the cow poop smell on the entire island lol”
I assume that is due to fertirrigation, correct? I once spent a full summer in the Chester/Liverpool area in England and they used to spray cow manure on the land to prepare for winter crops. OMG! Imagine a 90F+ weather and everywhere you go you have that smell. I remember joining a local country club that had an outdoor pool and it was absolutely impossible to stay outside. The smells gets into your hair, clothes, etc….
Honestly not sure could be
Yeah I saw that. “Premium Plus” when its just domestic first class. I will try to check out that spa you mentioned and hopefully the poop smell won’t be too bad.
Embark passengers.
Get weather forecast.
Close doors.
Pull away from terminal.
Think.
Oops bad weather at destination.
Disembark passengers.
Wish it (an life0 was that simple ! … Just add hundreds of aircraft & flights, many of which are connections … WX can change on a dime, not as predicted just to add more ‘excitement’ to the mix …
Weather happens. But it’s almost as if there is a reason why United wants to build out at JFK…
Somewhat easier to run an on time operation if you are operating less flights, but one press release about a random 7 days is not going to convince NYC-based fliers to head out to EWR. It’s a second class airport (even if one likes Terminal A, which I do not, Terminal B is worse than LGA ever was and Terminal C is… decidedly average?) in a second class state which has second class pricing on tickets. Will become even more of an afterthought for alliance connectivity once T6 JFK opens and UA knows it.
I flew out of EWR on the 14th UAL to Stockholm. Boarded on time 5 pm departure and then the weather got really bad, Lightning and thunder all the way around. It just would not stop. All ground ops came to a grinding halt including catering to the flight. We were offloaded and sat in the terminal for four hours. Thankfully we were reboarded and departed at 9 pm. No hot meals were loaded, everyone given snack boxes with (as always) one older female yelling at the FA like the weather was her fault. UAL crew were very apologetic but it was for safety to stop the catering and meals would now become unconsummable due to non refrigeration while on the ramp. Anyway I understand how it works. Disappointed and hungry but we survived.
By definition, if a UA flight can only use a UA gate (for example), then operational efficiency suffers. To what extent were delays exacerbated by airlines only being able to use their own gates?
While it’s certainly possible the FlightAware data isn’t entirely accurate, it actually looks like several flights were stuck on the tarmac for 7+ hours, not just 5.
https://www.flightaware.com/live/flight/UAL538/history/20250714/1855Z/KEWR/KSFO
https://www.flightaware.com/live/flight/UAL450/history/20250714/1935Z/KEWR/PANC
https://www.flightaware.com/live/flight/UAL2204/history/20250714/1830Z/KEWR/KLAX
That last link lists 10 hours, 4 minutes of taxi time for UA2204 EWR-LAX on 7/14.
I’d contend that holding passengers on the tarmac for that long absolutely flies in the face of safety and security. I don’t accept the idea that even a severe storm prevents some kind of exit strategy for these passengers within a 7-hour timeframe. This has happened enough times, particularly at NYC airports, for airlines to come up with a reasonable contingency plan.
At the very least, I’d like to see some reporting on these flights. These passengers truly deserved better.