Dozens of flights from the area’s three major airports were experiencing delays on the morning of Saturday, March 21, after a rough week that saw hundreds of cancellations, mostly due to bad weather.
This was the situation at each airport as of 11:30 a.m., according to FlightAware.
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Newark Liberty International: 61 delays, three cancellations.
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LaGuardia: 29 delays, one cancellation
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John F. Kennedy: 96 delays, five cancellations
Across the U.S., there were 1,707 delays and 103 cancellations at the same time.
Lines at Newark’s TSA check points were averaging anywhere from 1 minute to 11 minutes depending on the terminal and gates, according to the airport’s real-time tracker.
Delays at U.S. airports have ramped up in recent weeks due to a battle in Washington over funding the Department of Homeland Security, which includes the Transportation Security Administration that screens airline passengers. TSA workers have not been paid for weeks resulting in call outs and slow downs at many airports.
Travelers at Newark Liberty International Airport in Terminal B on Sept. 1, 2025.
While spring break is underway for many colleges including Rutgers University, vacation time for most New Jersey K-12 schools is still a few weeks away, when airline travel is expected to rise considerably during the last days of March and first week of April.
Democrats in Congress have refused to fund U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which is a part of DHS, without operational changes, after the deaths of two U.S. citizens during an immigration campaign in Minneapolis. Republicans so far have rejected the proposals, as well as Democratic bills that would fund TSA and other parts of Homeland Security while the ICE debate continues.
TSA absences reached 10% last weekend, a jump from the standard rate of under 2% during normal operations, DHS said. Some airports had much higher no-show rates, with John F. Kennedy International Airport seeing a 29% absence rate, 32% in Atlanta and 27% in New Orleans on March 18, the agency reported.This article includes reporting from USA Today.
This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Newark, JFK, LaGuardia airport delays ease despite TSA havoc
