Newark Airport

It is frustrating to fly out of Newark. Most of the time the flights depart over an hour late. Even during "Weather Normal" time the flights fly out late thereby affecting the schedules of return flights from various airports. I wonder why the airport authorities have not taken some steps to correct the situation.

The immigration queues are woeful as the queues were long and there were a lot of unmanned booths. I believe segregating passengers without explaining why is a dangerous thing for them to do (which is what happened to me despite being the only Indian in an all-Caucasian group). This was made worse by making me wait for an hour and being interrogated like a criminal about intimate details of my life. My advice if you end up in Newark airport is to co-operate fully and never go back there. The lack of screens which had all flights in the check in area was not good and there were surprisingly few places to eat as the ones that were there had long queues..

We connected through Newark going from Miami to Ottawa so did not experience the check-in counters ground transportation etc. Unfortunately due to weather delays we ended up spending over 9 hours here. While the newer larger terminals Continental uses are rather nice with a decent array of eateries and shops our onward flight departed from Terminal A which looks like a small crowded terminal built decades ago and never updated. Woefully over-crowded. While the main terminals had bars/restaurants run by Heineken and by Samuel Adams beers Terminal A had just a Budwesier brew pub/eatery (being the only sit-down restaurant in the terminal it was filled with a long line of people waiting to get in). The main terminals could use a desk giving ground transportation information (the only one is outside security) since at one point we were given the option of trudging out to Laguardia to get a flight to Ottawa but the reps at the customer service counters could give us NO information at all about time and cost of getting out to Laguardia.

Newark is far better than JFK but that's about one of the few things its got going for it. There is not much in the way of signage both inside and outside the airport grounds and it can be confusing. The whole airport needs a rethink in terms of staff attitude towards passengers together with more signage. The TSA agent on arrival was quite pleasant and we were on our way into Manhattan within 40 minutes of arrival. Our luggage was already on the carousel. For departures BA's check in area is located in the basement area of Terminal B; the signage by the roadside indicating where this is indicated is very small and needs to be made a lot bigger. In Terminal B there is small food court with a McDs. There is also a Chilis Too which is located nearer to the security checkpoint. Again there are no signs to indicate the existance of Chilis Too. TSA people on departure were slow and officious to the nth degree. There did not seem to be much effective communication between the TSA and the other security group who work in that airport; what we did see were these two groups arguing with each other about a wheelchair going through a security checkpoint (the wheelchair did not fit through the TSA checkpoint).

I travel to several cities in Europe and have never paid for a luggage cart. Here at Newark we greet visitors to our wonderful Country by charging them $5.00 to use the luggage cart. How very unfriendly and unwelcoming - and how very unnecessary. Also in Terminal C while waiting for International arrivals there is no comfortable place to wait. Previously there was a seating area where you could watch the passengers coming out from Customs and Immigration. Again not very welcoming.

I am at EWR on the average of once per week. It seem that almost EVERY time there is at lease one elevator or escalator not working. Maintenance is poor and not preventative. Also if you happen to arrive between 1:00 AM and 5:00 AM due to a delay many things are shut down. The Air Train runs only one train every twenty minutes. Really great after taking 18 hours to get from Omaha via Houston and see it pulling away as you get to the top of the platform. All said still better than LaGuardia or Kennedy and most convenient for me.

Going through security was a 3rd world nightmare. Totally disorganized indistinct lines no guidance. It had to be a 2 to 3 hr wait for those trapped in the lines. Of course we missed our connection. Our ordeal was relieved only because after a half hour wait with little visible progress some guy came out and said there was an Elite line which of course was impossible to see because of the crowd.

Have used Newark two or three times a year most recently DUB-EWR-DTW on Continental. The airport has some positives - the monorail (Air Tran) fairly fast and easy. (There’s also a inter-terminal bus through the ugly underbelly of the airport – fast but hot little seating difficult for people with even minor mobility problems.) But echoing some of the other posts arriving internationally then connecting domestically is a zoo. Passengers have to do the work of baggage handlers in taking their bags after clearing customs into a snake line to a transfer point for rechecking onto domestic connections. There are not enough airport workers nor enough space nor enough explanatory signs for this transfer; passengers are confused and herded like cattle. There’s no indication that it’s occurred to the airport authorities that international arrivals involves some people who don’t speak English. Even well intentioned airport workers – clearly not trained to deal with international passengers - end up barking orders that even English speakers have trouble hearing and understanding. One is expected (again without any clear explanatory signs) to deposit one’s bags in one of the jumbled piles of luggage. It’s such a picture of chaos that no reasonable person would think that those bags will end up checked onto the appropriate destination. Thus the crowding gets worse as passengers are understandably hesitant to separate from their bags. TSA in Newark can be unbelievably slow. First why can’t the whole transfer from an international flight to a domestic connection be in a secure area so that passengers don’t have to clear security again? In any case my TSA line literally cleared no more than about one passenger a minute; some people surely missed their flights. As one post noted the contrast with efficiently run European airports like Frankfurt make our American airports look very backwards.

Flying much more frequently through EWR (to LAX) than I have over the last three or four years and I've got to admit being pleased with some of the changes seen in that time. The biggest difference is with the TSA in Terminal C as the wait times now as compared to 2003 and 2004 are miniscule. President's Club could still use some updating/creature comforts but overall good experience. Biggest downer has to be the redcoat squadron that the airport employs. Clueless when it comes to directions current information etc. EWR is far superior to JFK and LGA for convenience cleanliness and the TSA security checkpoints.

This was our first time at this airport. Every person working there was unhappy. We didn't see one smile from anyone. Our flight was cancelled so we had to stay overnight at a hotel. The airport is poorly run the employees are very sad and look like they have no life in them and out of all the airports we have been to it was the worst designed. The airport signs are small and lead you to nowhere so they have really unhappy crabby people to not help you. We will never go there again and I advise everyone to not fly there. The screen told us the flight was on-time but it was cancelled so we didn't find out until hours later.