We flew to Newark to find out if the airport is recovering from its recent struggles

NEWARK, N.J. — Our flight was almost ready to depart for Newark Liberty International Airport, and even the captain sounded a bit surprised.

“Currently looking like an on-time departure,” he said over the plane’s public address system moments before we pushed back from the gate at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport last week. “Things are going pretty smoothly in Newark today.”

That’s a far cry from the situation in April and May, when hundreds of flights were delayed, canceled or diverted, drawing attention to problems at one of the United States’ busiest airports.

Record numbers of Americans are expected to fly around the July Fourth holiday this year, posing another big test for the nation’s fragile air travel system — and for Newark in particular. The airport’s earlier struggles were due in large part to runway construction and to communication and radar outages in the air traffic control facility that handles the airspace around Newark.

Now United Airlines, which operates nearly 2 out of every 3 flights at the Newark airport, says conditions there have improved dramatically — so much so that Newark was the most reliable airport in the New York City area in June. Cirium, an aviation analytics company, confirmed that Newark did have fewer cancellations and a higher percentage of on-time departures than LaGuardia Airport or John F. Kennedy International Airport. 

That’s a remarkable turnaround. I wanted to see it up close, which is how I found myself landing 20 minutes early at Terminal C in Newark. The departure board there showed dozens of flights operating on schedule, with only a handful of delays. Still, it was not hard to find travelers who remembered darker days.

“On average, I have been delayed at least an hour, if not up to six hours,” said T.J. Ceballos of Fair Haven, New Jersey. “It’s just insane — it’s absolutely insane.”

Ceballos flies frequently for work. He has thought about using other airports but keeps coming back to Newark because it’s convenient.

“We are still here at Newark hoping that things get better, you know? I guess what’s the definition of insanity? Doing the same thing over and over again, expecting different outcomes,” he said with a laugh. “But it’s so much closer to my house.”

In May, the number of passengers flying through the airport was down 20% compared with the same time last year, according to the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which operates the airport.

Some of those travelers went to Philadelphia or to New York City’s airports, where traffic held steady in May. Others, like Mark Willis of Freehold, N.J., just stayed home.

“I canceled one trip,” said Willis, whose flight on this day was delayed. “The airline kept changing the flights, and it was just getting crazy. And I just said, ‘Forget it. I’m not going.’ … That was my sign to just stay home that time.”

The problems in Newark came as a surprise to Vishal Soni. He and his wife were visiting from Canada, which has done a better job of modernizing its air traffic control system than the United States has.

“What I heard is that the systems are quite archaic,” Soni said. “For the U.S., for a big airport like this, it should be better than this, for sure.”

On-time performance at Newark has improved markedly. That’s partly because air traffic control equipment is working better. And in June, the airport reopened a major runway that had been closed for construction for more than a month.

“My flight’s not delayed right now, so knock on wood for me,” said Rachel Joyce of San Francisco. She flies to New York every month or so for work, often through Newark.

“I decided to be brave and take the risk. I also read that they said now over the past couple of weeks have had better stats than other New York airports,” she said.

I can confirm that things were going well at Newark when I was there — until it was time for my return flight to Washington, D.C. First, the crew arrived late to Newark because of mechanical problems with their previous flight. Then, afternoon thunderstorms hit.

My 45-minute flight back to D.C. turned into a six-hour odyssey with a diversion through Richmond, Virginia — an unwelcome reminder that weather is by far the biggest cause of air travel delays.