United passengers face cancellations, suggest handling the 'rebooking process on your own'

It’s been a tough few days for United Airlines passengers at Newark Liberty International Airport. Just ask Fr. Zachary Navit, who said he’s been living in the terminal for almost two days with a group that was scheduled to fly out on a Catholic pilgrimage trip to Ireland.

“What’s consistently come out behind the scenes in talking to people on the ground, it’s staffing,” Navit told USA TODAY. “They just do not have the staffing to handle the volume of people, the flights that are scheduled.”

The tour group he’s leading was originally scheduled to depart on Sunday evening. Their first flight to Dublin was delayed multiple times and eventually canceled, and then the whole group was rebooked for a 7 p.m. departure on Monday. They did eventually board the plane around 3:45 a.m. Tuesday, but that flight never made it out, either, because the crew eventually timed out.

“The person at the gate explained, we’re just trying to keep postponing this flight instead of canceling it in the hopes of putting together a crew, but we just don’t have a crew,” Navit said.

His trip was booked through a third-party tour company, Select International Tours, which is working to rebook the group.

It’s the fourth day of travel headaches for passengers on United and other airlines in the Northeast, though United seems to be faring the worst.

According to tracking website FlightAware, at about 2:30 p.m. ET on Tuesday, United had canceled more than 410 flights, or about 14% of its daily schedule, with 684 more flights delayed. Newark, also, had the highest cancellation rate of any airport in the country on Tuesday, with 167 departures and 209 arrivals already canceled by the early afternoon. That represents 24% of the outbound schedule and 29% of the inbound schedule for the day.

On Monday night, United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby sent a letter to his employees in which he mostly put the blame for these ongoing issues at the feet of the Federal Aviation Administration.

“The FAA frankly failed us this weekend,” the letter said. “The FAA reduced the arrival rates by 40% and the departure rates by 75% (on Saturday). That is almost certainly a reflection of understaffing/lower experience at the FAA. It led to massive delays, cancellations, diversions as well as crews and aircraft out of position.”

He went on to say that those Saturday issues cascaded through the weekend as summer weather continued, with more than 150,000 passengers affected on United alone.

“To be fair, it’s not the fault of the current FAA leadership that they are in this seriously understaffed position – it’s been building up for a long time before they were in charge. But it’s incumbent on them now to lead and take action to minimize the impact. It’s not their fault, but they are responsible for solving the problem they inherited,” the letter said.

The FAA forewarned of travel headaches in the New York area this summer, saying that staffing issues were going to reduce capacity in one of the busiest sectors of the nation’s airspace. The agency preemptively asked airlines to reduce their schedules in the Northeast to account for those limitations.

A United spokesperson told USA TODAY that Newark was more affected by this week’s weather than other airports in the New York area, and that the airline is continuing to work to recover its operations. United has issued a waiver for some major Northeast airports, providing passengers with extra flexibility to rebook if they are scheduled to travel in the region through Wednesday. The airline also recommends that passengers keep track of their flight status and use self-help rebooking tools as much as possible.

The FAA issued a statement responding to Kirby’s letter.

“We will always collaborate with anyone seriously willing to join us to solve a problem,” it said.

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But that’s probably cold comfort to travelers who are stranded, like Thompson Gerhart.

The 34-year-old was on his way to Malta for a family trip and was approaching 24 hours at the airport on Tuesday afternoon.

“We’re, I don’t know, three or four, maybe even five gates away from where the customer service desk is, and the line is forming around here,” he said. United was able to rebook his group on flights for Friday, but he said now they’re trying to see if they can get their bags back so they’ll have the clothes and other necessities they’d packed for the time they were supposed to be away.

To other travelers headed to Newark, he said: brace yourselves.

“Expect delays. I would definitely say that, and if things do get to the point where they’re delayed or canceled, you may be better off trying to start a rebooking process on your own, because everyone’s going through a lot of pain right now,” he said.