4 new exciting things coming to United’s Newark center this year

While some passengers avoid it at all costs, Newark Liberty International Airport (EWR) is a major hub for United Airlines.

Newark has a bad reputation for delays, aging infrastructure and poor runway configuration, among a long list of complaints, but United are getting nowhere, especially after only pausing their flights. flight from near John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK).

Newark is the airline’s main East Coast gateway and a major market with a passenger “reception area” that includes much of New York City.

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United realizes that the airport is far from perfect, but it is on a mission to improve the travel experience.

Finally, the airline’s Newark executive vice president, Rodney Cox, gave TPG a tour of what passengers can expect at the airport in the coming weeks and months — and there’s plenty more passengers can be proud of. excited.

Newark’s new Terminal A opened to much fanfare, but it also brought with it some major hiccups. First, the opening of the new $2.7 billion facility is delayed at the last minute for more than a month due to unsuccessful alarm and fire suppression tests.

Although the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which manages and oversees the airport, has bought itself for some time, the new Terminal A is still There are still many problems on opening day. Hours of long queues, power outages and security breaches greet passengers on January 12, but the problems don’t stop there.

Many gate agents are not adequately trained in the new automated jetbridge technology, leading to further delays in the weeks following opening. Plus, the building’s alarm system is constantly switched off as franchisees open and close doors — and once the alarm goes off, all safety doors in the facility will lock, resulting in delays. widespread.

Thankfully, however, the terminal operator, the Munich Airport Group, United and other airline partners have worked to resolve these difficulties.

“As with any new construction, you have to get the knots out of it. And we’ve had some problems with the jet bridge and the alarm system… We’re working on those. that’s to reduce the problems for us. the customer and we’re going to get all those problems out of that building,” Cox said.

There may be some remaining delays at Newark Terminal A in the near term, but the building-related issues are expected to be resolved well before the peak summer season.

At first, 21 of the new 33 gates of Terminal A are in operation. The remaining 12 will open as part of a second phase of construction expected to be completed this summer.

Once construction is complete, Alaska Airlines and Delta Air Lines will both move to Terminal A, and United will also have six more gates, bringing the total of Terminal A to a whopping 17. (United uses all 52 gates in Terminal C.)

Until the second phase opens, United will house its Airbus A319 and A320 fleets in the new Terminal A and is prioritizing high O&D (destination and origin) markets for flights from the base. facility to minimize the number of connections. (This includes many routes to Florida, San Diego, San Antonio, Boston and Washington, DC)

There is an airside bus service that runs around the clock between terminals A and C, but it’s still a pain. In fact, United added ten minutes to the minimum connection time at Newark to account for this roughly eight-minute bus ride.

Currently, United plans to do around 80 flights a day from Terminal A, but that number will increase to around 120 to 150 once the second phase opens. When that happens, United will house larger planes at Terminal A, including wide-body and international flights, Cox said.

Regional jets, which used to fly from the former Terminal A, will operate exclusively from Terminal C in the future, he added.

Newark is now home to a “one-of-a-kind” United club opened last May. This brand new 30,000 square foot space is located near Gate C123 and has made a big impression with the flyers.

Despite seating nearly 500 passengers, this United Club is particularly prone to overcrowding as it is the only permanent United lounge open in the entire airport.

The old club near C74 is undergo a bowel renewaland United are building a brand new location in Terminal A.

While these new and renovated clubs have been around for a while, Cox has shared an updated opening schedule with TPG.

The new club in Terminal A will open at the end of Q2 (around June), while the refurbished C74 club will reopen at the end of Q3 (September).

Both lounges are expected to look like the new C123 club in terms of design, Cox revealed.

Newark Airport is not restricted location like LaGuardia, JFK and Washington Reagan National.

That said, the “traffic flow” is managed by the Federal Aviation Administration, which limits Newark’s operations to 79 combined takeoffs and landings per hour.

Those operations are split between all of the airport’s carriers, although United is by far the largest. Every time a ground program delay or bad weather arrives at the airport, United is badly affected.

With limited travel, United couldn’t grow in Newark by adding more flights; In total, the airline could only operate between 430 and 440 flights daily at Newark, Cox said.

So instead, the airline will grow with a different strategy: upgrading. By deploying larger aircraft at Newark, the airline can increase capacity without adding more flights to its daily schedule.

Upgauging works as long as there’s a need for more seats and room for larger planes, and Cox says there’s both.

“When we often see a load factor of 45% [in January or February], we’re still hovering at 80%. Is crazy. Everyone is flying. They haven’t stopped yet,” he said of demand trends.

In terms of space for larger planes, Cox has plenty of parking space in the new Terminal A. As for which planes are going to Newark, he says that “you’re likely to see fewer and fewer United Express departures, more mainline departures. It’s not necessarily the widebody, it’s the stream. main could be Airbus or Boeing 737 or 757.”

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