United has actually been placing the laborious promote on shoppers about simply how nice Newark is these days. I get it. The headlines had been actually unhealthy earlier this yr when the wheels fell off on the airport, so that they wish to counter that now that it’s operating higher. However the reality is that Newark sucks, JFK sucks, LaGuardia sucks, and if it’s essential to fly out and in of New York, your probabilities of having an operational challenge are far too excessive it doesn’t matter what airport you employ. This isn’t United’s fault, however there’s some hazard for the airline in speaking Newark up an excessive amount of.
It was a few weeks in the past that United put out a press launch and had an occasion to “rejoice” Newark not being as horrible because it has been. Significantly. The press launch appeared like there had been an unimaginable victory.
United Celebrates Turnaround at Newark Liberty Worldwide and Charts Vibrant Future
The truth of the scenario is that air site visitors management staffing points, technical issues, runway development, and basic congestion introduced Newark to a standstill. Just a few years again, Newark grew to become a Degree 2 airport which meant that it not had slot controls. It had runway timings, however airways had been overscheduling the precise capability of the airport. This got here to a head when the airport needed to shut down a runway for development. The top outcome was gridlock.
In response to Anuvu knowledge, within the month of Could, Newark noticed solely 61.3 % of flights arrive inside 14 minutes of schedule whereas JFK was at 74.4 %. And whereas JFK had lower than one % of flights canceled, Newark had greater than seven %.
Within the short-term, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) lowered airport capability to 68 operations per hour. This was very doable as soon as the runway reopened early on June 2, and efficiency improved. However how a lot did it enhance? Not practically sufficient to think about it a victory.
In its press launch, United stated this:
This summer time, United celebrated its greatest operational summer time ever at EWR, placing the airport on par with JFK and LGA for on-time efficiency. The truth is, United flights out of Newark arrived on-time extra typically this summer time than flights operated by airways out of JFK or LGA.*
That little asterisk is all the time what calls my title. This needs to be one thing we may replicate, proper? Nicely…
*In response to A:14 on-time efficiency knowledge for arrivals and departures for United and the cumulative DOT reporting carriers at JFK and LGA from masFlight for June 2 – August 31, 2025.
Oh good. See, masFlight is identical knowledge I exploit. Anuvu is the dad or mum firm. So I can look all of this up myself. The outcomes are certainly true utilizing that cherry-picked methodology.
For that point interval, if we take a look at flights out of Newark, 67.46 % arrived at their vacation spot inside 14 minutes of schedule. However LaGuardia was higher at 69.52 % and JFK even higher at 70.15 %. What provides? Oh proper, United is simply counting airways that report back to the Division of Transportation (DOT) with their knowledge. So I consider which means we will solely take a look at Alaska/Hawaiian, Allegiant, American, Delta, Frontier, JetBlue, Southwest, Spirit, and naturally, United.
At JFK, these airways account for about 78 % of whole departures, and it does decrease the on-time charge to 69.83 %. LaGuardia was barely worse at 67.66 %. However Newark, nicely, with simply shy of 90 % of exits counting, 69.86 % arrived inside 14 minutes. We’re speaking three one-hundredths of a % distinction, however Newark comes out on high.
Let’s neglect that Newark noticed a couple of third of a degree increased on its cancellation charge. Oh, and if we used arrivals into the NYC airports as a substitute of exits out, Newark would have completed final.
That is what counts as a turnaround, apparently. And let’s not neglect precisely what it took to get Newark to operate even that nicely (or not nicely). United needed to dramatically slash flying.
United July Newark Departures by Yr
Knowledge by way of Cirium, contains regional flying
That’s a lower in departures of three.4 % vs final yr and 6.0 % in comparison with the yr earlier than. Certain, United was capable of function the identical variety of seats this summer time as final thanks to larger airplanes, however that hurts the communities that want connectivity essentially the most. Once we take a look at the markets that gained essentially the most seats, it’s San Francisco, Denver, Austin, London/Heathrow, Vancouver, and Nashville. No surprises there. However what in regards to the massive losers? Excluding Tel Aviv for apparent causes, listed here are the cellar dwellers:
Largest Lack of United Departing Seats from Newark by Market July 2025 vs Prior Yr
Knowledge by way of Cirium
It’s the small and mid-size cities that lose out essentially the most. In lots of circumstances, they’ve loads of seats to New York on their very own, however they lose out on all that nice connectivity United has constructed up by way of Newark to locations overseas.
To be clear, we will’t blame United for this. It’s being compelled to chop down its flight schedule due to the Port Authority’s and the federal authorities’s full and whole incapability to offer a functioning airport and airspace system that meets the wants of the native inhabitants. Now, to make up for these failures, the FAA has determined to place obligatory cuts right down to 72 operations per hour by way of October of subsequent yr. I assume they assume they’ll squeeze in additional than the 68 that they had this summer time, however not that rather more.
United has no selection however to chop again, and for what goal? By chopping again it will get again to a poor operation as a substitute of a very horrible, terrible, ridiculously-bad operation. That’s a useful tradeoff, however it’s not one which any operator ought to need to make. And there’s no actual hope of an precise repair on the horizon for any of the New York airports.
