Shipping Containers for Sale in Newark, NJ

Newark Liberty International Airport continued to experience significant flight delays and cancellations Monday due to staffing shortages stemming from the government shutdown.

More than 90 flights were canceled at Newark Airport as of Monday morning, along with over 100 delays affecting multiple airlines and destinations, according to FlightAware.

On Sunday, nearly 1,000 flights were either delayed or canceled, the worst day of the weekend and occuring at the end of a popular travel week for New Jersey residents.

Some arrivals were delayed an average of 2 hours and 14 minutes Sunday, the Federal Aviation Administration reported and numerous videos showed a long line of planes waiting to take off.

The disruptions come as major airlines have begun implementing government-mandated flight cuts due to increasing air traffic control staffing shortages.

Jim Ryan, of Monmouth Junction, said he was one of hundreds of New Jersey travelers stranded at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport Sunday as several flights to Newark were canceled.

Ryan, who planned to fly home Sunday afternoon after a week-long trip to Florida, said his United Airlines flight was first rescheduled for the evening, then canceled.

After spending the night at the airport, his flight was rescheduled for 11 a.m., and included a two-hour layover in Cleveland.

“It’s been challenging,” Ryan said. “Not an ideal situation.”

Ryan said some travelers left scrambling took rental cars to drive back home, while others headed to other airports in Florida as Amtrak trains sold out.

Airlines started cutting 4% of daily flights at 40 major airports Friday. Later this week, the cutback will reach 10%.

Sean Duffy, transportation secretary, told Fox News Sunday that flights might need to be reduced by up to 20%.

Like other federal employees, air traffic controllers have not been paid for weeks. And while the government has faced air traffic controller shortages for years, the shutdown has worsened the problem, according to the Associated Press.

“More controllers aren’t coming to work day by day, the further they go without a paycheck,” Duffy told Fox News.

Although the Senate took the first step Sunday in lifting the shutdown, experts have said it could still take time for flights to return to normal once the government reopens, the Associated Press reported.

Many travelers have taken to social media to share their frustrations about disrupted flights.

“We might be moving into the Newark Airport” one traveler joked in a post on TikTok, saying two of her flights were canceled and she was forced to wait at the airport for hours.

The message to Newark School of the Arts faculty, administrators and staff was short but not sweet.

“Regrettably, due to significant fiscal operational concerns, the Newark School of the Arts is left with no choice but to institute measures to address those concerns,” read the email message, sent Oct. 27 by the school’s executive director, Divad Sanders. “As such, you will be laid off from your position effective IMMEDIATELY.”

“It is NSA’s hope,” the message added, “that once its financial situation is addressed, the NSA will reevaluate its staffing needs.”

The long-struggling 57-year-old weekend and after-school arts academy for children and adults has been shuttered since then, a normally vibrant institution rendered quiet and dark at its longtime location opposite Lincoln Park.

Word of the school’s abrupt shutdown has sparked outrage, dismay, and bewilderment among teachers, students, parents and others passionate about an institution founded in 1968 by local art educators and musicians Saunders Davis and Stella Lass to help rebuild Newark’s arts community and its spirit after the city’s fiery unrest a year earlier.

“I was stunned, stunned,” NSA’s longtime voice teacher and artistic director, Nadine Herman, said more than a week after receiving the email. “My heart is still pounding in my chest.”

Herman said NSA’s leadership scheduled a staff-wide meeting for noon today at the school.

Herman, who called Sanders’ email “cold-hearted” in tone and frustrating for its lack of information, was among several staff and faculty members who said NSA’s leadership had not indicated before then that the school was in dire straits or that layoffs or a shutdown were possible. Word of the closing spread quickly among NSA’s tight-knit community.

“I was devastated,” said alumna A-La Davis, a Newark native who started taking voice lessons at NSA when she was 11, before going on to Newark Arts High School, the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, and a professional singing career. “They validated my dream and helped me fulfill it.”

Another NSA alumna, Abby Pukin, 21, of Holmdel, said she commuted to the school from her home in Monmouth County for a decade, attending Tuesday afternoon classes and Saturday performances. Referring to another prestigious institution across the Hudson River, Pukin added, “I know students who have taken lessons at the Manhattan School of Music, and they prefer the NSA instruction.”

Lauren LeBeaux Craig, executive director of Newark Arts, a 44-year-old arts umbrella group, said, “We’re deeply saddened by the news of Newark School of the Arts’ closure.”

“Their legacy has left an indelible mark on generations of artists, and our community owes them a tremendous debt of gratitude.”

Sanders declined to be interviewed for this article or answer questions submitted in writing about the shutdown. Instead, he provided a press release dated Nov. 4 that referred to the closing as “a temporary pause in programs and operations, effective immediately.”

The release quotes the board president, Lori Scott-Pickens, saying, “The decision was made with deep care and reflection, “and that “we recognize the challenges this pause presents to our students, families, and faculty.”

But, Scott-Perkins added, “the organization concluded that a brief pause would provide the necessary space to restructure responsibly, reinforce its foundation, and emerge stronger.”

The school said it was working to “protect tuition investments,” and to “process refund requests for prepaid tuition on a prorated basis.” It pledged to communicate with parents and provide transcripts, recommendations and other records to help students transfer to other programs.

Some faculty said a restructuring of the board may be in order.

“If you don’t know what you’re doing, step aside,” said Antoinette Montague, a jazz vocalist and longtime NSA voice teacher.

Steve Shiman is a revered figure in the NSA community, having served what NSA veterans said were two successful stints as executive director.

“Steve saved the school,” said Frederick Tambwe, a former longtime NSA operations manager.

Shiman left the school after his first stint in the 1980s to start a successful business, and was persuaded to return in the mid-1990s to right its ailing finances, staying on until about 2010. But Shiman said he’s been largely out of the loop since then, and didn’t know what was wrong with the school or how to fix it.

“It’s a tragedy to see a place that has done so much for so many people go down,” he said, praising the loyalty of the faculty as “fantastic.”

Shiman was succeeded by Larry Tamburri, an award-winning arts administrator who had previously managed the Pittsburgh and New Jersey symphony orchestras. Tamburri stayed on through 2024 before retiring in his mid-70s after 12 years in the post.

Faculty and staff praised Tamburri as a compassionate, steady leader and well-connected fundraiser. But the school finished 2023 and 2024 with deficits, as it did for a total of seven years since 2011, according to its annual 990 financial statements posted online by Propublica.org.

For example, NSA’s 2024 spending totaled $1,378,399, outpacing total revenues of $1,076,324, for a year-end shortfall of $302,075.

That year, spending increased 15.5%, with salaries accounting for 68% of costs, and the deficit was more than double what it had been in 2023.

In addition to dipping into its reserves, the school also began relying more heavily on tuition revenue than on contributions.

Tamburri said the ups and downs of NSA’s revenues throughout his tenure were typical of small nonprofit institutions. That said, he attributed the deficits in his final two years at the school to a nationwide decline in charitable giving linked to the coronavirus pandemic.

“Post-COVID, it’s been very tough,” Tamburri said.

NJPAC CEO John Schreiber said the school’s shutdown, even if temporary, was “a great loss to the community.”

“For almost 60 years, the Newark School of the Arts has been a place where our young people have had their first introduction to music, to dance, to all the art forms,” Schreiber said.

He said the shutdown comes at a time when competition for arts funding has intensified as the National Endowment for the Arts has cut funding under President Donald Trump.

The NEA cuts can have a ripple effect even for arts programs that don’t rely on the agency for grants, Schreiber said, because donors may divert some or all of their charitable dollars to programs that have lost endowment funding. Federal cuts to non-arts programs could have the same impact on the arts, he added.

“Look what we’re living through now with the SNAP funding," Schreiber said.

Deivis Garcia studied violin at NSA while growing up in Elizabeth, on Newark’s southern border. He’s 51, and now lives in Newark with his wife and daughter and works as a librarian in Montclair.

But Garcia still plays music, busking on a classical guitar in Montclair’s pedestrian-friendly Church Street area. Life came full circle for him when his daughter began studying drama at NSA, though her class this fall was cut short and her instructor was fired.

Before then, Garcia said the school had been a kind of “warm blanket” in the state’s largest city, a “hidden gem.”

“It was inexpensive,” he said, “and all the teachers were kind souls who genuinely loved sharing their talents with the children.”

Travelers to Newark Liberty International Airport were hit with over three-hour flight delays Thursday due to the historic government shutdown — while other major New York City airports are slated to feel the pain of steep flight cuts in less than 24 hours.

Passengers with flights arriving at the New Jersey transit hub Thursday evening faced average delays of roughly three and a half hours due to air traffic staffing shortages, according to a Federal Aviation Administration advisory.

Those flying out of the Garden State airport were warned to expect 45-minute delays and counting as of 7 p.m., the FAA added.

The lengthy delay is in effect until at least the early hours of Friday, the FAA said. More than 810 flights have been called off nationwide, according to FlightAware.

“Wouldn’t want to be flying out of Newark tonight,” one user posted on X alongside a timetable of delayed Newark’s flight departures.

Several high-traffic airports, including Newark and New York’s John F. Kennedy International and LaGuardia airports, will be impacted by cancellations and delays on Friday as part of the FAA’s 10% airspace reduction to keep American travelers safe.

Newark Airport was bracing for massive disruptions beginning in the morning, while some travelers were already dealing with travel headaches Thursday night.

“Tomorrow is gonna be a nightmare. Tomorrow, the FAA will just shut down. Get out while you can,” one Newark Airport worker, who wished not to be identified, told The Post late Thursday.

Elsewhere in the airport, airline customers were stranded and had to scramble for last-minute hotels and buses to their final destinations to dodge overnight stays at the terminal.

Milton Romero, 32, missed his connecting flight to Washington, DC, while on his way home from Miami due to a flight delay at Newark.

“The flight was delayed one time. A second time, three times. And now I just got here. My connecting flight to DC has left, so now I gotta figure out what to do. Pay for a hotel, or probably drive myself to DC,” he said.

Since Romero booked his flight through a third-party company, he had to contact them to arrange a partial refund.

“I don’t know what to do, this is my first time experiencing this, so I don’t know. I’m kind of shocked that I’m standing here by myself,” he said.

The dismayed traveler debated whether to purchase a $93 Greyhound bus ticket from Newark just after midnight to get him to his destination by 7 a.m.

Two 21-year-old college students learned that their flight to Johannesburg, South Africa — a trip they had been planning for a year — was canceled while waiting at Newark during their layover time.

“We came from Washington, DC, and our flight got delayed, like, two hours. We were just all sitting on the plane, waiting to come here because of all the understaffing,” said one of the students, who wished not to be named.

“And then, when we got here, our flight to Johannesburg got canceled. So now we need to get a hotel for tonight and fly to Johannesburg tomorrow at 8:50 p.m.,” she continued.

The airline the students were flying with only offered to foot 15% of the bill for the hotel stay, the students claimed.

Their final destination was supposed to be Livingstone, Zambia, for a school study-abroad trip planned a year ago, the student recalled.

Meanwhile, at the Air Canada ticket counter, a drained mother who had just visited her daughter in Toronto was speaking to agents to try to find a flight back home to India after missing her connecting flight since her first flight was delayed.

“Two, three, four hours. Four hours late. And now the next flight is tomorrow, 6 p.m.,” she said. “And no help and I feel tired. I [didn’t] eat any food, then this switching terminals, go here, go there, waiting for my bags, I am old and I’m just exhausted.”

Diane Kieras-Ciolkos, a travel agency business owner from Massachusetts, was worried about how the sweeping flight delays and cancellations could hurt her business after she was hit with a whopping four-hour delay back to Boston from Newark.

“Well, this is going to possibly greatly affect many clients. So what I’ve done while I was personally traveling is texting and getting in touch with all of our clients that had flights today and tomorrow,” said Kieras-Ciolkos, 54.

“We get paid when people travel, and looking at this,” she said, pointing at airport screens showing countless flight delays. “People become fearful. Where does that leave us?”

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy announced the drastic cuts to flights on Wednesday and warned that “mass chaos” could erupt when the reduction goes into effect.

The change, which could ground as many as 4,000 flights nationwide, comes as many air traffic controllers have called out sick while not being paid during the nation’s longest-ever government shutdown.

The embattled Newark Airport has experienced the brunt of staffing shortages, with several ground stops and ground delays issued in recent weeks.

But even before Oct. 1, airports nationwide have been grappling with a scarcity of air traffic controllers. The shutdown — now nearing 40 days — has only compounded the issue.

On Sunday, Duffy warned that airport delays are “going to get worse.”

He previously maintained that the feds would “stop traffic” if the staffing shortages became a safety issue, but added “we’re not going to let that happen,” while talking on CBS News’ “Face the Nation” with Margaret Brennan.

The chaos comes just weeks before Thanksgiving, one of the busiest transit holidays of the year.

Flights leaving LaGuardia Airport are also delayed by up to one hour Thursday evening due to unrelated wind conditions, the FAA said.

Plans by the FAA to cut airline capacity due to the government shutdown 2025 could hit major airports including Newark Liberty International Airport, LaGuardia and JFK ahead of the Thanksgiving travel season. Cancellations, long wait times and delays today were impacting travelers amid the longest shutdown in history.

While a list of 40 airports reportedly cutting or reducing flights has been circulating — including Newark and Teterboro, a private airport in New Jersey used by President Donald Trump — the FAA has not said which airports will be impacted by a 10% cut in flights. Cuts are expected to be phased in starting tomorrow, Friday, Nov. 7.

As airlines scramble with shortages of air traffic controllers, who are working without pay amid the 36-day government shutdown, there remains a stalemate in the Senate, with no progress reopen the government.

According to FlightAware.com, 1,187 flights were delayed this morning and 49 were canceled, all within, into or out of the U.S. Including international airports, that reached 11,944 delays and 316 cancelled flights.

Want to check Newark delays or security wait times? Will your flight be cancelled at LaGuardia or JFK? Here's what to know.

Are there flight cancellations at Newark, LaGuardia, JFK?

According to FlightAware.com, there are 3 cancelled flights at Newark Liberty International Airport (EWR), including two United flights and one Volaris flight, as of this morning, Nov. 6, 2025.

No flights were cancelled at LaGuardia Airport (LGA) as of the time of writing, either into, within or out of the U.S.

At John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK), there were 4 flights cancelled, impacting JetBlue and Delta.

Newark airport delays today; TSA wait times

There were 46 delays early today, Nov. 6, at Newark Liberty International Airport (EWR), according to Flight Tracker and FlightAware.com. Travelers can expect departure delays of at least an hour that are increasing due to an "air traffic management problem." It's unclear if this is connected to the shutdown or FAA's reported cuts.

Dozens of flights to Florida, Illinois, Virginia, Alaska, Massachusetts, Tennessee, and international flights were delayed. Airlines impacted included United, GoJet, Qatar, JetBlue, Spirit, Jazz, Swiss, TAP Air Portugal and American Airlines

TSA security wait times are updated in real-time, but as of this morning, Nov. 6, there ranged from no wait at Terminal A to up to 13 minutes are Terminal B. Check here.

LaGuardia airport delays, wait times

LaGuardia Airport (LGA) had 107 delays today, Nov. 6, impacting American Airlines, Delta, Spirit, Southwest, United, Mesa, Air Canada, Endeavor Air, Jazz, and Republic. Departure delays today were reported between 16 to 30 minutes due to winds, with inbound flights delayed on average 38 minutes, according to FlightAware.

Delayed flights were headed to Florida, Chicago, Boston, Washington, D.C., Denver, Virginia, North Carolina, and Canada. Check your flight status here.

at LaGuardia as of this morning were between two minutes and 13 minutes, depending on whether you were checking in to at Terminal A, B or C.

JFK airport delays, wait times

John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK) has 39 delays as of this morning, Nov. 6, impacting JetBlue, Delta, American Airlines, Air India, Air New Zealand, Caribbean Airlines, China Airlines, and others. Check the status here.

TSA security wait times at JFK were between four minutes and up to 33 minutes at Terminal 5, so prepare accordingly. Check wait times here.

Lori Comstock is a New Jersey-based journalist with the Mid-Atlantic Connect Team.

NEWARK, N.J. - The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) temporarily halted departures bound for Newark Liberty International Airport (EWR) on Sunday morning due to air traffic control staffing issues, according to an ATCSCC advisory.

As of 9 a.m., the FAA changed the stop to a Ground Delay Program extended through 12:59 a.m., Monday.

What we know:

The FAA advisory, issued at 13:51Z (8:51 a.m. ET), states that the delay program will remain in effect from 13:51Z Sunday through 04:59Z Monday (8:51 a.m. to 12:59 a.m. ET).

The program affects all flights from the contiguous U.S. and Canada bound for Newark. Flights departing from major regional air traffic centers, including ZNY, ZDC, ZTL, ZOB, ZBW and ZAU, will be required to hold or delay their departures based on assigned slots.

According to the FAA, Newark’s arrival rate is being restricted due to staffing shortages at the control tower. The advisory reports an average delay of 116 minutes and a maximum delay of 212 minutes.

The Ground Delay Program replaces the earlier Ground Stop that was issued Sunday morning and lifted after nearly two hours. The FAA noted that revisions are likely later in the day as staffing levels change during the evening shift.

What is a ground stop?

A ground stop is a temporary order issued by the FAA that halts or restricts flights headed to a specific airport.It is typically used to manage air traffic when conditions at the destination — such as weather, runway closures, equipment malfunctions, or staffing shortages — make it unsafe or inefficient to accept incoming aircraft.

During a ground stop, flights that have not yet departed are held at their origin airports until the FAA clears them to proceed. Ground stops are often lifted gradually as conditions improve or as traffic is rerouted.

What's next:

The FAA says operations at Newark may continue to experience cascading delays throughout the day as airlines adjust schedules. Travelers are advised to check directly with their airline for the latest departure times and rebooking options.

The Source: Information from the FAA Air Traffic Control System Command Center (ATCSCC Advisory 030, issued November 2) was used in this report.