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    Newark Airport Is Experiencing Major Flight Delays. What’s Causing Them?

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    Staffing shortages at an air traffic control center have added to the effects of a runway closure, prompting United Airlines to cut flights at the hub.Flying into or out of Newark Liberty International Airport has brought plenty of misery in the last week, with cancellations, delays stretching well past five hours and flight diversions that have stranded travelers far from their destinations.Passengers are reporting on social media that they have missed flights and spent hours stuck on the tarmac aboard planes. Some are still struggling to make new travel arrangements.The disruptions, which stretched into Friday with delays averaging over two hours, have highlighted ongoing air traffic control staffing issues. The troubles prompted United Airlines, Newark’s largest carrier, to cut nearly three dozen round-trip flights per day at the hub beginning this weekend, the carrier’s chief executive, Scott Kirby, announced on Friday.Here’s what anyone heading to Newark Airport needs to know.Air traffic control staffing is limiting capacityLast summer, management of the airspace surrounding Newark shifted from New York to Philadelphia. This move, which involved relocating at least a dozen air traffic controllers, was meant to ease air traffic delays.The Federal Aviation Administration has attributed this week’s flight disruptions at Newark to equipment failures and unspecified staffing issues at the Philadelphia air traffic control center as well as to construction on one of Newark’s runways.These ongoing staffing issues are “effectively limiting the capacity of Newark Airport,” said Aidan O’Donnell, the general manager of New Jersey airports at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      ‘So Eager to Get Back’: Travelers Pour Into a Reopened Heathrow

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      Information boards showed that most flights would leave on time, but the lines at ticketing counters signaled that many travelers were in for more delays.Throngs of passengers anxious to get on their way surged into Heathrow Airport in London on Saturday, a day after a power blackout closed the airport and forced thousands to delay their trips.As information boards flickered back to life, an army of extra airport staff members, dressed in purple, sprang into action to help people as they walked through the terminal doors.Ganesh Suresh, a 25-year-old student who was trying to get home to Bangalore, India, was among those who secured a coveted seat on a Saturday flight. After his Air India flight was canceled, his parents booked new tickets on Virgin Atlantic, while he spent the night at a friend’s place in Birmingham, England.“I was so eager to get back,” Mr. Suresh said. He sheepishly admitted to yelling at his parents in frustration during the height of the shutdown chaos. “I might apologize to them when I get back.”Travelers, diverted or rebooked, arrived early, with trains and other transport routes to the airport reopened. A day earlier, the airport’s roads were empty except for police cars.A Heathrow representative said on Saturday that the airport was “open and fully operational,” adding that the extra flights on the day’s schedule could accommodate 10,000 extra passengers. At the airport, information boards showed that most flights would leave on time, but the snaking lines at ticketing counters signaled that many travelers were in for more frustrating delays.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Aviation Chaos Can Quickly Spiral, Despite Contingency Plans

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      Airlines, airports and air traffic controllers prepare for chaos. But that doesn’t make responding to it any less complicated.The global aviation system is deeply interconnected and responding to a disruption — especially one as severe as a power outage at a global airport hub — is a delicate balancing act. For airlines, moving even a small number of flights can have cascading effects.“They’re thinking not just in terms of a single day, but recovery,” said Dr. Michael McCormick, a professor of air traffic management at Embry‑Riddle Aeronautical University, who managed the federal airspace over New York during the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. “They have to look at where passengers with bags, aircraft and aircrews need to be tomorrow, the next day, and the next day.”When crises occur, airline network operation centers go into overdrive. The centers are the nerve centers of carriers — typically large, quiet, secure rooms with power backups and protections against severe weather and disasters.At large airlines, operations centers are staffed around the clock with teams that monitor the weather, manage planes, communicate with air traffic control, schedule crews and much more.Small disruptions can be handled surgically — a sick pilot can be replaced or a broken plane swapped out for another. But bigger disruptions like the one at London’s Heathrow Airport can require scrapping and reworking intricate plans while taking into account a wide range of limitations.Planes differ in how many people they can carry and how far they can fly, so a small plane used for shorter domestic flights cannot easily be swapped in for a larger one used on longer flights. They also must be fueled adequately and their weight balanced appropriately, needs that must be adjusted if planes are rerouted.Regulations require that pilots and flight attendants are not overworked and are allowed to rest after certain number of hours on the clock. If a flight takes too long to depart, a crew can time out. When schedulers do reassign crews, they also have to take into account where those pilots and flight attendants are needed next, or they could risk more disruptions later.Airlines, of course, do not operate in isolation. As they change plans, they need to work with airport and air traffic control officials who may have limited resources to accommodate the changes. Airports are limited not just in how many flights they can receive, but also, in some cases, what types of planes they can safely accept. In the United States, for example, many air traffic control towers have long suffered from controller shortages. More

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      Vast Storm Knocks Out Power in North Texas

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      The storm is expected to intensify, bringing the threat of blizzards, tornadoes and damaging winds across the central and southern United States.More than 380,000 customers in North Texas were without power on Tuesday morning as a powerful storm with strong winds swept across the region.The storm, part of a system that stretched from Iowa to Texas, was expected to strengthen as it moved east on Tuesday. Warnings were in place for blizzards in the Plains and severe storms across the South, with damaging gusts, hail and possible tornadoes forecast from eastern Oklahoma to Alabama.Flights into Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport were briefly halted, and about 10 percent of departing flights out of the airport were canceled as of Tuesday morning, according to FlightAware, which tracks flight data.A severe thunderstorm warning was in effect in Texas until 8:30 a.m. local time, including for the cities of Palestine, Fairfield and Buffalo, according to the National Weather Service.In southern Oklahoma, more than 20,000 customers were without power, according to the tracking site poweroutage.us. A mobile home in Ada, Okla., was destroyed after a possible tornado hit, according to KOCO-TV, a television station in Oklahoma City. More

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      FedEx Plane Lands With Engine on Fire at Newark Airport After Bird Strike

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      The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which runs the airport, said that the plane landed on Saturday morning and that there were no reported injuries.A FedEx cargo plane was forced to make an emergency landing on Saturday morning at Newark Liberty International Airport with one of its engines on fire after it struck a bird while leaving the airport, officials said.The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which runs the airport, said there were no reported injuries. There were three people aboard the plane, the authority said.In a statement, FedEx said the plane was flying from Newark to Indianapolis when the bird strike occurred. “Our crew declared an emergency and returned safely to Newark,” it said, adding that the plane was being evaluated. The company did not respond to a question about what cargo, if any, was on board.The Federal Aviation Administration said the bird strike damaged one of the Boeing 767’s engines. The agency said the plane, FedEx Flight 3609, was disabled on a runway. The Port Authority Aircraft Rescue and Firefighting unit, the Port Authority Police and Port Authority Operations responded to the emergency landing.The episode happened at around 8 a.m., and operations resumed at the airport a short time later.A fire can be seen on the underside of the plane in footage shared on social media. A video of the plane while it was airborne shows a flash of what appears to be fire and then a puff of smoke.The episode follows a string of aviation disasters, including the midair collision of an Army helicopter and a passenger jet in Washington, D.C., that killed 67 people.It is not uncommon for planes to strike wildlife such as birds, and most episodes do not result in deaths or serious injuries.There were 19,603 wildlife strikes reported in the United States in 2023, or an average of about 54 strikes each day, according to a Federal Aviation Administration report published in June. Of those strikes, 3.6 percent caused damage. More

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      Send Us Your Views on Airplane Safety and the D.C. Reagon Airport Crash

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      We want to hear your perspective on the circumstances that led to the Jan. 29 midair collision near Reagan National Airport, and on air safety and regulation in general. What works and what does not?The Jan. 29 collision of a passenger jet and a military helicopter close to Washington’s Ronald Reagan National Airport was the worst in nearly a quarter of a century, taking 67 lives. The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating the crash, and a combination of flawed communications and congested airspace in the area appear to be part of the explanation.The Reagan National crash was only the first in a string of recent aviation accidents spanning from Philadelphia to Nome, Alaska. On Feb. 17, another U.S. passenger jet crash-landed in Toronto, injuring more than a dozen people.In the interests of educating the public and shining a brighter light on aviation safety, we want to better understand what has happened in Washington and beyond. Are you a pilot who has spotted a detail we haven’t reported on? Are you a passenger who has been affected by the Reagan National crash or others? Maybe you are a current or former government employee with oversight of these matters who has a suggestion for us in our reporting? If any of this sounds like you, we would like to hear your perspective.We’ll read every response to this questionnaire and contact you if we’re interested in learning more about your story. We won’t publish any part of your response without following up with you first, verifying your information and hearing back from you. And we won’t share your contact information outside the Times newsroom or use it for any reason other than to get in touch with you. More

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      Egypt Feuds With Travel Blogger, Issuing 1,100-Word Response to Complaints

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      When a blogger criticized Cairo’s airport, Egypt’s government fired back, citing security footage, threatening legal action and asking, “Is it reasonable for a passenger to visit two lounges before a single flight?”Authoritarian governments are not known for taking kindly to criticism. And in Egypt, official skins can be especially thin: deepening repression has muffled most dissent and sent tens of thousands of perceived political opponents to jail, including one for posting a doctored photo of the president with Mickey Mouse ears. But this month, Egypt found itself facing an opponent it could not silence so easily.“Cairo Airport: Is There a Worse Major Airport?” the travel blogger Ben Schlappig pondered in a no-holds-barred post on his website, One Mile at a Time. He cited the “actively hostile and rude” staff, the “endless requests for tips,” the “disorder” in line, the “weak” dining options and the “yuck” lounges.“My visits have varied from inconvenient and disorganized, to outright chaotic,” he wrote. “I just can’t think of a single redeeming quality about the airport.” As if salting the wound, he ended by comparing Cairo’s airport unfavorably with that of Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia, with which Egypt is locked in a yearslong dispute over water rights.It was a verdict almost guaranteed to enrage Egypt’s government, which is making a concerted push to double its tourism numbers, trying to reach 30 million annual visitors by 2028. Besides employing one in 12 Egyptian workers, the tourism industry delivers desperately needed foreign currency to a country reeling from a prolonged economic crisis.New luxury hotels are going up around Cairo and Egypt’s sunny beach destinations. The government has announced plans to refurbish historic attractions. And a long-awaited new museum of antiquities is opening in stages — and to positive reviews — next to the Great Pyramids of Giza.Egypt’s government is making a concerted push to reach 30 million annual visitors by 2028.Sima Diab for The New York TimesWe are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Man Hiding Tarantulas, Centipedes and Ants Is Stopped From Boarding Flight

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      Officials in Lima, Peru, said the endangered spiders had been taken from the Amazon basin. The man was flying to South Korea.Something about a man who was trying to board a plane last week in Lima, Peru, caused customs officers at the international airport outside the capital to do a double take: He had an extraordinarily swollen belly.They asked him to lift his shirt.When he did, they found he was carrying 320 tarantulas, 110 centipedes and nine bullet ants. Each of the bugs was crawling around inside its own small plastic bag, where they were obscured by filter paper, according to the National Forest and Wildlife Service of Peru. The bags were reinforced with strong adhesive tape and attached to two girdles that were wrapped around the man’s body.In all, the man was carrying 35 adult tarantulas, each about the size of an average hand, and 285 juvenile tarantulas, the wildlife service said.All of the critters found were native to the Amazon region of Peru, said Walter Silva, a wildlife specialist for the government. The tarantulas are on the country’s list of endangered species, he added.“All were extracted illegally and are part of the illegal wildlife trafficking that moves millions of dollars in the world,” Mr. Silva said in a news release from the forest and wildlife service.The Peruvian authorities arrested the man, a 28-year-old citizen of South Korea who was traveling back to his country last Friday, with a planned stopover in France, they said. The National Forest and Wildlife Service said it had opened an investigation but did not specify any charges and did not release the name of the man they had detained.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Airport Food Prices at JFK and LaGuardia Are About to Go Up

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      The three big airports that serve New York City have proposed allowing concession prices to rise and adding a surcharge to cover higher wages and improved worker benefits.The prices of food and drinks in the airports that serve New York City, already a pet peeve of many travelers, are set to take a sharp upward turn next year.To cover the rising costs of labor at the three big airports it operates — LaGuardia, Kennedy International and Newark Liberty International — the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey has proposed rule changes that would allow restaurants and shops to raise their prices and tack on a 3 percent surcharge.Together, the changes could result in a 7.5 percent increase in January to prices that have long been the subject of complaints from travelers. An online menu for the Bobby Van’s steakhouse at Kennedy shows that a cheeseburger and fries costs $29.50 and a glass of chardonnay is $17. After a 7.5 percent increase, that meal could cost an additional $3.49, for a total of about $50.At LaGuardia on Tuesday, a bar charged $16 for chicken Caesar wraps and turkey-and-Swiss panini. Nearby, a shop sold a 12-ounce bag of almonds for $15.99.The Port Authority said the increases would help the concessions cover the costs of rising wages and better benefits for their employees. The agency, which sets the rules for the businesses that operate inside the airport terminals, has proposed gradual increases in the minimum wage for workers there.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More