Newark Liberty Airport travelers give new meaning to "arrive early" this Memorial Day weekend
For travelers at Newark Liberty International Airport, these next few days may feel like a lot is out of their control. Everything from nasty weather to recent staffing and construction problems is a recipe for angst over Memorial Day weekend.
As a result, the oldest strategy in the book has a new meaning.
"'You're flying out of Newark?!'"
Arriving early for a flight has always been smart, but at the troubled airport on Thursday, where there were more than 450 delays as of 9 p.m., arriving early was a common strategy for a different reason. People wanted to be in place, ready to pivot and become their own travel agent.
"My dad was like, 'You're flying out of Newark?!?'" Brian Page said.
Page was at the airport roughly six hours before his flight.
"It has been national news. It has been a big deal, what's going on at Newark. Holiday weekend, all of that is compounding and making it an interesting situation here."
Page's approach was a trend among the travelers early on Thursday, but not due to the fear of being late.
"We figured if we left more time, if something were to happen, we could make another plan. We're going on a cruise. We had to make the boat," Cathy Torrey said.
Hope for the best, prepare for the worst. Cherrelle Henderson and Shanice Cooke were in the latter category, trying to get to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina for the long weekend.
"We don't even know. We got here, got delayed, then cancelled," Henderson said of her flight.
"No, it was cancelled, straight to cancelled. Then we got the next flight. That's all the way at 6. We found a closer flight that we're on standby for. Now that standby flight got delayed. Plus, the flight at 6 got delayed," Cooke added.
- Read more: Newark Liberty Airport is safe to fly, United Airlines says. Here's the latest on flight delays.
Here's what the experts are saying
The Transportation Security Administration says it expects to screen about 18 million passengers from now until Wednesday of next week, and AAA says more than 45 million Americans will be traveling for Memorial Day, the most since 2005, with the majority on the roads.
"The complication for our area is that New York City is No. 4 in the top 10 of destinations. So you have a lot of people leaving and a lot coming to our area. We think after noon and before 6 will be busiest," AAA's Robert Sinclair said.
The recent outages and air traffic control shortages have led to flight reductions at Newark Liberty, and, as a result, anxious flyers. CBS News New York reached out to the Federal Aviation Administration about any reassurances it could provide. It told us in a statement that it is already taking steps to improve the situation by "accelerating technological and logistical improvements and increasing air traffic controller staffing."
