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Newark Airport Hate
I’ve flown in and out of EWR ever since I was a baby, and I’ve found the experience there to be decent at the very least. Even though I now live in the San Francisco Bay Area, I still pass through Newark whenever I’m traveling with my family to Puerto Rico. It therefore confuses me as to why EWR gets a lot of hate.
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- GalaxyFlyer
- Posts: 12400
- Joined:
Re: Newark Airport Hate
Started with Fiorello LaGuardia asking why his ticket to NY landed in Newark, NJ. Nobody in NY has much love for Newark.
Re: Newark Airport Hate
It’s incredibly delayed prone, and as JFK and LGA have improved their pax experience with new terminals B and C at EWR are showing their age (granted B has for a while now).
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- PSAatSAN4Ever
- Posts: 1818
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Re: Newark Airport Hate
There are several issues that EWR airport has to deal with:
* The two parallel runways are very close together, like at SFO, meaning in inclement weather there's a slowdown in operations.
* Absolutely NOWHERE to expand the airport, even to separate the two parallel runways.
* A NIMBY population that was horrified that planes on approach might...(gulp)...actually fly a few feet to the east/west. The whole event was summed up by one Helen Lovejoy-like character on TV screaming "won't somebody PLEASE think of the children?"
* Restricted airspace that can't be fixed until the entire system is re-designed (true for JFK and LGA as well).
* Outdated facilities unable to handle neither the demand of traffic nor the modern system of security. Getting into the "banjos" can be, in my experiences, quite a harrowing experience. [b]The new Terminal A and overall layout-redesign will eventually take care of this to a large extent.
Remember also that EWR was a "podunk" airport that wasn't a fairly busy place until PeopleExpress came in - and then it grew by leaps and bounds, quickly overwhelming the facilities.
Ironically enough, EWR is a great airport to get to from Manhattan, as NJTransit provides a one-train service to the airport, which doesn't exist for either LGA or JFK. LGA's "mass transit options" are terrible, to say the least, and for JFK, one might as well find someone headed to the airport and split the cost of a taxi.
* The two parallel runways are very close together, like at SFO, meaning in inclement weather there's a slowdown in operations.
* Absolutely NOWHERE to expand the airport, even to separate the two parallel runways.
* A NIMBY population that was horrified that planes on approach might...(gulp)...actually fly a few feet to the east/west. The whole event was summed up by one Helen Lovejoy-like character on TV screaming "won't somebody PLEASE think of the children?"
* Restricted airspace that can't be fixed until the entire system is re-designed (true for JFK and LGA as well).
* Outdated facilities unable to handle neither the demand of traffic nor the modern system of security. Getting into the "banjos" can be, in my experiences, quite a harrowing experience. [b]The new Terminal A and overall layout-redesign will eventually take care of this to a large extent.
Remember also that EWR was a "podunk" airport that wasn't a fairly busy place until PeopleExpress came in - and then it grew by leaps and bounds, quickly overwhelming the facilities.
Ironically enough, EWR is a great airport to get to from Manhattan, as NJTransit provides a one-train service to the airport, which doesn't exist for either LGA or JFK. LGA's "mass transit options" are terrible, to say the least, and for JFK, one might as well find someone headed to the airport and split the cost of a taxi.
Re: Newark Airport Hate
I don't think it deserves the hate it gets but it certainly doesn't do much to help its own cause. Personally if I'm going to Manhattan I'm good with either EWR or LGA. Train from EWR or cab from LGA is fine.
The little things at EWR add up though when considering the pax experience. The whole United concourse smelling like burnt airport food, the underwhelming choices for a quick bite to eat (took me 20 minutes after I paid at the stupid kiosk to get a diet coke the last time I was there), perhaps the recent improvements make this null and void. Don't know if Gallaghers is still there but that place was decent for a good meal.
Arriving into the Intl concourse after 15 hours from HKG and just seeing the filth and lazy workers just scrolling through their phones like zombies just made the whole experience that much worse. Granted this was pre-covid but I doubt the lazy workers have improved much or the entire facility that just looks like a run down building.
The little things at EWR add up though when considering the pax experience. The whole United concourse smelling like burnt airport food, the underwhelming choices for a quick bite to eat (took me 20 minutes after I paid at the stupid kiosk to get a diet coke the last time I was there), perhaps the recent improvements make this null and void. Don't know if Gallaghers is still there but that place was decent for a good meal.
Arriving into the Intl concourse after 15 hours from HKG and just seeing the filth and lazy workers just scrolling through their phones like zombies just made the whole experience that much worse. Granted this was pre-covid but I doubt the lazy workers have improved much or the entire facility that just looks like a run down building.
Re: Newark Airport Hate
The facilities, especially Continental’s then United’s are fine
It’s the every day endless delays getting in and out of EWR that make it so difficult, afaik it’s still the most delayed airport in the country and I don’t see that ever changing
It’s the every day endless delays getting in and out of EWR that make it so difficult, afaik it’s still the most delayed airport in the country and I don’t see that ever changing
Re: Newark Airport Hate
One of the best decisions UA has made is the upguaging of equipment across the system, the traveling population is only getting larger while airports basically stay the same size with few exceptions
EWR is the ultimate example of this, it will always be operating at the limits and never have enough capacity to meet the need, the only solution is to put larger aircraft in there, I don’t think anything smaller than a 738 should be used and it looks like the future fleet reflects that philosophy
The 737-10 will be very good for EWR, once again putting the most passengers possible in every precious slot and eventually that should be the smallest aircraft they use there and of course significant additional services with medium and widebody aircraft
EWR is the ultimate example of this, it will always be operating at the limits and never have enough capacity to meet the need, the only solution is to put larger aircraft in there, I don’t think anything smaller than a 738 should be used and it looks like the future fleet reflects that philosophy
The 737-10 will be very good for EWR, once again putting the most passengers possible in every precious slot and eventually that should be the smallest aircraft they use there and of course significant additional services with medium and widebody aircraft
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- arcticcruiser
- Posts: 600
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Re: Newark Airport Hate
The EWR Airtrain is…definitely one of its worst experiences.
Re: Newark Airport Hate
arcticcruiser wrote:The EWR Airtrain is…definitely one of its worst experiences.
I used the EWR Airtrain with my dad and my little brother to get from Terminal B to the Newark Airport train station to catch our train to Princeton Junction. The cars were too small, they only had one door per side, and we had to get out at Terminal C to let other people off before getting back on board.
Re: Newark Airport Hate
I've only been in NYC for the past few years and use EWR often due to it being a United hub. And let's just say I'm not very fond of it...
as @PSAatSAN4Ever mentions, the only good thing is that it's easy to get to via train. But even that has diminished. the NJ Transit ticket is expensive, and JFK and LGA now can be reached via the subway and free buses / airtrain connections.
IMHO, EWR facilities are outdated and bursting at the seams. The airtrain is so packed I frequently have to wait for the second train just to get on and still be shoved up against someone else. The security lines (at least at the United terminal) are packed. Thankfully I have Clear and Precheck so it's pretty fast for me, but I genuinely feel sorry when I look out and see a sea of fellow passengers snaking down massive lines in front of the checkpoints. The terminal is passenger unfriendly: the food options are limited and often have long lines, the gate waiting areas are always overflowing. And United's gates are such a mess that their lines look and feel more like rugby scrums than any sort of orderly queue. Try loading a 777 bound to SFO from a gate that has too few chairs even for a 737.
I occasionally fly United out of LGA, and it's such a better experience. The new terminal is beautiful and very passenger friendly. JFK can be hit or miss based on the terminal, but I actually appreciated United's transcons out of there (when they had them). Their terminal wasn't fancy, but it was small, you could basically go from checkin to the gate in about 5 minutes.
I'm hoping the terminal renovations will help, but right now, there's nothing I really like about EWR except for the fact that it's United's hub.
as @PSAatSAN4Ever mentions, the only good thing is that it's easy to get to via train. But even that has diminished. the NJ Transit ticket is expensive, and JFK and LGA now can be reached via the subway and free buses / airtrain connections.
IMHO, EWR facilities are outdated and bursting at the seams. The airtrain is so packed I frequently have to wait for the second train just to get on and still be shoved up against someone else. The security lines (at least at the United terminal) are packed. Thankfully I have Clear and Precheck so it's pretty fast for me, but I genuinely feel sorry when I look out and see a sea of fellow passengers snaking down massive lines in front of the checkpoints. The terminal is passenger unfriendly: the food options are limited and often have long lines, the gate waiting areas are always overflowing. And United's gates are such a mess that their lines look and feel more like rugby scrums than any sort of orderly queue. Try loading a 777 bound to SFO from a gate that has too few chairs even for a 737.
I occasionally fly United out of LGA, and it's such a better experience. The new terminal is beautiful and very passenger friendly. JFK can be hit or miss based on the terminal, but I actually appreciated United's transcons out of there (when they had them). Their terminal wasn't fancy, but it was small, you could basically go from checkin to the gate in about 5 minutes.
I'm hoping the terminal renovations will help, but right now, there's nothing I really like about EWR except for the fact that it's United's hub.
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