JFK, LaGuardia and Newark Delays Persist: How to Protect Your First Day

Delays are still rippling through all three airports

Delays at JFK, LaGuardia and Newark have persisted after a cable cutting incident, Gothamist reports. New Jersey Transit and US Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy have both weighed in on the cause, according to the same report. Those three airports take most inbound traffic from the UK, Germany, France, Spain, Brazil and the domestic US, so one bad day there spreads into hotel check-ins and evening plans.

Check the airline app, not the airport board

Airport-wide boards cover every carrier at once. Your airline's own app tracks your specific aircraft and connection. Check it before you head for the terminal, then again 30 minutes out. If you are connecting through another US hub, watch the second leg as closely as the first, because a late arrival in New York usually means a missed onward flight rather than a missed one.

Give day one some slack

An overnight from London, Frankfurt or Paris already makes the first afternoon rough. Add a disrupted flight and a fixed 6 PM booking becomes a problem. Where you can, keep the first evening free, choose flexible or refundable reservations, and push anything timed, a Broadway curtain included, to day two at the earliest. If your arrival is badly delayed, sort the rebooking inside the airline app before joining the service desk queue, which moves slowly when several flights are disrupted at once. Also build 60-90 minutes of extra slack into any onward train or transfer you have booked for arrival day.