Latest news with #BrettSnyder
USA Today
28-05-2025
- USA Today
Could Newark's trouble affect your summer travels? Here's what to know
Could Newark's trouble affect your summer travels? Here's what to know | Cruising Altitude People, understandably, keep asking me if they need to worry about flying to, from or through Newark Liberty International Airport this summer. The airport has been in the news for disruptions for a month now, and travelers are worried about what those high-profile headaches mean for their trips. If you, too, are wondering what to do this summer if you're planning a trip that involves the East Coast, here's what you need to know. The good news is, you probably don't need to be as concerned as you may think. Problems at Newark So, how did we get here? Newark has had a month of delays and cancellations because of a number of overlapping issues. 'The most acute problem right now is the runway construction that's going on there,' Brett Snyder, author of the blog Cranky Flier and owner of the travel agency Cranky Concierge, told me. Newark is down one runway, which limits the airport's flexibility. On top of that, a series of radar and radio outages prompted the Federal Aviation Administration to further reduce the number of flight operations at the airport, partly because a handful of controllers took trauma leave after briefly losing contact with planes in April. Those flight reductions are meant to keep passengers safe. The FAA wants to ensure that controllers have the bandwidth and tech capabilities to handle the amount of traffic they're responsible for. 'The only way to ensure safety is to bring the volume down so we're not at that tipping point,' Sheldon Jacobson, professor of computer science at the University of Illinois' Grainger College of Engineering, previously told me. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy proposed sweeping technology upgrades for the FAA to address the agency's aging infrastructure, but those proposals haven't yet been funded by Congress, and they'll take years to implement even once the money is secured. 'It's absurd that it's been so difficult to get a modernized system that they've been talking about for more than 25 years,' Snyder said. In the meantime, the agency will keep chugging along on old infrastructure. Is Newark still a safe airport? Experts agree that despite the issues and aging technology, Newark remains a safe hub for travel. 'I don't think I would be overly concerned on the safety issues, but I would have real concerns about the on-time issue,' Snyder said. Last week's Cruising Altitude: Why an airline pilot's training is 'similar to a specialist surgeon' Are more disruptions in the Northeast likely? Another cause for optimism is that airlines are rearranging their schedules ahead of the summer crush. The FAA announced new caps on operations at Newark, and United Airlines, which is the largest carrier at the airport, significantly cut back its schedule already. That means that there's a plan in place to try to keep disruptions to a minimum this summer, but it doesn't mean it's guaranteed smooth sailing. Snyder said that in some ways, the flight reduction at Newark could make flying in the Northeast a little easier for everyone this summer. 'It could actually benefit the rest of the system in the Northeast, because there are fewer aircraft trying to use that airspace,' he said. 'You will have fewer airplanes that they need to try and sequence. That may be a stretch, but it's possible.' Jacobson warned, however, that as equipment across the FAA's air traffic control organization ages, disruptions like those happening at Newark could become more frequent at other facilities as well. 'This could have happened anywhere. It happened to happen at Newark,' he said. 'The question is what's so special there? The chances are others are going to start to experience other breakdowns.' How to avoid problems on your own trip While travelers may be thinking more about the possibilities for disruption to their flight plans this summer, given the news cycle, experts say the situation is less extraordinary than it seems. 'If you look at travel delays and travel cancelations, the primary reason continues to be due to weather,' Jacobson said. 'We cannot control the weather. When a storm system comes through the New York City area, you're going to end up with delays.' Snyder agreed that weather remains a major concern for summer travel, and the usual advice for dealing with that applies. 'It's no different than any other summer. If you can fly nonstop, fly nonstop, it makes your life easier. If you have a connection in a place that is potentially likely to be impacted by weather or whatever it may be, just give yourself a buffer on your connection time, and just be patient,' he said. Zach Wichter is a travel reporter and writes the Cruising Altitude column for USA TODAY. He is based in New York and you can reach him at zwichter@
Travel Weekly
20-05-2025
- Business
- Travel Weekly
Chicago O'Hare battle: United has a tactical advantage over American
A legal battle playing out between American Airlines on one side and the city of Chicago and United Airlines on the other could shape the future competitive landscape at Chicago O'Hare. At issue is scarce gate space at the airport, the nation's fourth busiest, in which both United and American maintain hubs. United currently utilizes 90 O'Hare gates, according to the Chicago Department of Aviation, while American utilizes 71. But the balance would shift further in United's favor if a preliminary gate space redistribution by the city is implemented. Under the proposed decision, United would gain approximately five gates and American would lose approximately four gates, according to a lawsuit American filed against the city on May 2. Under O'Hare's formula, gate access is redistributed based on how much each carrier utilized their gates during the previous calendar year. The changes would take effect in October. United, which has petitioned to intervene in the case on the side of the city, said that it could actually gain six or more gates. Chicago is slated to announce a final determination on June 1. Brett Snyder, an airline industry analyst who pens the Cranky Flier blog, said that a United net pickup of 10 gates on American at O'Hare could be decisive for the airline, which has already substantially tipped the balance of power at the airport in its favor. "This could set in motion a process for United to keep getting gates while making it harder for American to continue to keep the gates it has," Snyder said. Post-pandemic usage gap United built back from the pandemic much quicker at O'Hare than American, increasing its annual seat count lead at the airport between 2019 and 2024 from 9.3 million to 13 million. Last year, American offered 24.3% fewer O'Hare seats than in 2019, while United flew 99.2% of its 2019 seat count, Cirium flight schedule data shows. This summer, United is slated to fly 10.2% more O'Hare seats than last summer. American, meanwhile, is building aggressively at O'Hare and has upped its summer schedule by 20.9% year over year. At the heart of American's lawsuit is timing. The airline contends that the city of Chicago, at the request of United, began the gate redetermination process prematurely and in violation of a lease agreement that the Department of Aviation negotiated with airlines in 2018 to lay the groundwork for an O'Hare expansion. During those 2018 negotiations, American declined to sign on until the city agreed to expedite the construction of three common-use gates in the airport's L Concourse, next to gates American already operates. The last of those so-called L-Stinger gates became operational on March 14. In its complaint, American contends that it signed onto the 2018 lease agreement after extracting a commitment from the city that it would have 12 months to ramp up its gate usage after all the new L-Stinger gates became operational. Only then could the Department of Aviation conduct a usage assessment. With American aggressively growing at O'Hare this year, its allocation would presumably be higher if the process were delayed. But language in the lease instead sets the timing of the reallocation around completion of expansion work in Terminal 5. For its argument, American is relying on a map, referenced in that same lease clause, that depicts the L-Stinger gates as well as on separate communications with the city. Will AA fight to keep up? In its Q1 earnings call, United boasted of its growing strength in terms of brand-loyal passengers at O'Hare and other hubs. At O'Hare, those claims are supported by the carrier's growing gap over American in terms of yield, defined as revenue per passenger mile flown: United did 13% better on per-mile yield than American in the fourth quarter of 2024, according to Cirium. Snyder said that if United's gate lead at American increases, American could still fight back. But doing so might not be worth it. "If United keeps up the pressure and they utilize the hell out of those gates, then they will probably get a higher percentage of total traffic," he said. "What American can do is try to keep up and keep adding and adding. Or they may decide it's not worth it and drop back in Chicago." A status hearing in American's case is set for June 25.
