Originally Posted by
Hilmar Lehnert
What's currently happening in EWR? My last four international outbound connections were complete messes with massive delays, missed connections, and each one required rebooking including one overnight stay, Ironically each original layover in EWR was 2+ hours, but apparently that's not enough these days anymore. That has started in October and the last one happened two days ago: Original plan was BOS->EWR->IAH->GRU with 2-ish hours of layever each.. BOS->EWR was delayed a lot by late aircraft and issues with the right engine. I made it to EWR with 6 minutes before gate closing of my connection to IAH. Fortunately I'm a good runner, so I make it literally as they close the door.. Plane leaves the gate but doesn't go anywhere. After two hours we head back and deplane because of a "maintenance issue". Fortunately I get rebooked on EWR->GRU since there is no way I can make my original IAH->GRU flight. At time of boarding the rolling delays start on this one too. More maintenance issues. Final delay on this one: 2 hours 7 minutes and of course at that time of night all lounges are closed.
The other itineraries were equally chaotic. Do other people have similar experiences or is it just bad luck on my part?
EWR is and continues to have operational difficulties as an airport. Limitations due to air traffic control at peak times in the NYC region, weather as well as operational challenges due to MX all don't help when you're trying to connect at this airport.
And, especially at this time of year, there's a bit more passenger volume trying to get places due to the holidays. Makes things even more challenging for the business travelers.
David