Flight Cancellations Plague Holiday Travelers

the staff of the Ridgewood blog

Newark NJ, on December 22nd, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey announced that for the first time since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, monthly air passenger levels across the agency’s regional airports surpassed pre-pandemic volumes. The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey run Newark, LaGuardia and John F. Kennedy airports.

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In November, the Port Authority’s airports handled a total of 11 million passengers, which was 102 percent of pre-COVID November 2019 volumes. Strong demand for air travel in November was driven primarily by domestic travelers during Thanksgiving, when 8 percent more holiday passengers flew to U.S. destinations compared to Thanksgiving 2019.

The Port Authority also forecasts demand for air travel will remain high through the remainder of 2022, particularly during the 11-day period beginning Friday, Dec. 23, 2022, to Monday, Jan. 2, 2023.

The evident return to air travel in the bistate region caps a year of accomplishments and openings for the Port Authority’s redevelopment projects at its three major regional airports. It is a stark contrast to the nadir of the pandemic in 2020, when volumes at the three major airports declined steeply to just a quarter of its pre-pandemic volumes.

But as of  early Wednesday morning, there were seven cancellations and 20 delays at Newark Liberty International Airport — a far cry from the massive numbers seen over the holiday weekend, but showing that issues remain, even midway between Christmas and New Year’s Eve.

At NYC airports, the numbers are much worse — 64 cancellations and 13 delays at LaGuardia, and 17 cancellations and 32 delays at JFK and systemwide issues with Southwest Airlines, which doesn’t fly out of Newark, have caused a significant amount of the problems nationwide. The airline also scrubbed 2,500 flights for Wednesday and nearly 1,400 for Thursday as it tried to restore order to its mangled schedule.

The flight delays that have been inconveniencing holiday travelers are continuing today , as of 6:30 a.m., a total of 32 LaGuardia flights have been canceled today, and other local airports have announced several delays. Newark Liberty airport reported a total of 23 delays and two cancellations. John F. Kennedy airport has 30 total delays and three cancellations.