EWR

David J. Danto

Travel thoughts in my own, personal opinion

eMail: ddanto@IMCCA.org Follow Industry News: @NJDavidD on all

EWR – April 2024

I’m sure I’ve witten about Newark Airport before. My experiences there have generally been so bad that I don’t know if living conveniently close to an airport is a blessing or a curse. While it just about forces me to fly United (which my long-term readers know is generally awful) that is far from the only issue there. As far as airports go, it’s a toilet.

Let’s start with a good thing. The new Terminal A:

The new EWR Terminal A - Click picture to watch a brief video

The new facility is huge and clean and beautiful. It looks like the best international hub you’ve ever seen…you’d never guess you’re at EWR. However, I assume just to remind you where you are, the security checkpoints there are a mess. They are using new, high-tech scanner machines that apparently break-down so frequently that the TSA crews have standard procedures for trying to reset them, finding out that it doesn’t help, then needing to drag bags from one belt to another adjacent one. Then, even with the use of a second ‘brand new imaging machine’ that apparently was working, the TSA officers decided they still needed to hand-inspect both of my bags (briefcase and rollaboard.) They of course found nothing bad or inappropriate. Mind you, these same bags packed the same way on the way home went through Nashville’s BNA and Las Vegas’ LAS with no issues – not stopped for any additional inspection. One of these is wrong – either EWR is insanely paranoid and over-inspecting, or the other US airports are too lax, but whichever it is, it’s not a good situation. File that one as a TSA complaint.

But, despite the clear security mess, terminal A is gift. A rare one. Planes are assigned there with no discernable pattern. Most of the time United folks are flying through the larger, older Terminal C. I’ve written before about the removal of moving walkways to make room for bars / restaurants which block the flow of people walking to their gates. I’ve also written about the “Newark attitude” of some of the staff there. However, no matter what I’ve commented about before, this facility always finds new ways to torture passengers.

The latest problem is that all the chairs have been removed from the terminal C baggage claim area. It’s not that the Einsteins running this place don’t know that chairs are required there for multiple reasons (tired travelers, family waiting for people or bags, the disabled, etc.) as you can see from the first picture below from the baggage area of the new terminal A – with plenty of chairs. I can’t conceive of a reason why all the chairs that were against the walls in terminal C would have been removed. I thought maybe it was for a thorough cleaning or to be removed in favor of new ones coming-in, but it’s been about two months now, so I figure the only explanation is the sadistic airport managers.

If you get your rolling bags and step outside with them, you then have to navigate an obstacle course of uneven sidewalks with cracks between the large concrete tiles that are standing-by to snag your bag and send you flying to the ground.

Why in the world this isn’t simply a single, contiguous, poured concrete floor is beyond me.

If you do manage to make it past the uneven tile obstacle course to the passenger pick-up area, you then find yourself interrupting driver club meetings.

The cars are triple parked for so long (in a no parking area meant to stay clear for a quick load and leave) that the drivers actually get out and start having what I assume are daily meetings of drivers’ anonymous. This is not an occasional thing – this is every single time I pass through that area near Passenger Pick-up 6. There are a couple of police around there whose job it is to prevent this via warnings or tickets, but they always ignore it. I totally appreciate it when the police don’t want to be a stickler when a driver stops there as its passenger isn’t out yet, but when drivers turn their ignition off, get out, and start having tea-parties in the street, it’s really time for the police to act – and they never do. It's like the cartoon where the mice are having a party on the cat’s back.

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Newark airport used to be “New York’s Best Kept Secret” as their ads many years ago used to say. Now it’s just a toilet of a facility that is not managed well, with its older areas going to hell and its newer ones showing how poorly those in charge have handled it.

This article was written by David Danto and contains solely his own, personal opinions.

All image and links provided above as reference under prevailing fair use statutes.

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