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Travelers prefer JFK and LaGuardia over Newark amid safety

concerns

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Passenger arrivals at Newark declined 13% since April 28

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Kayak reports decline in searches for Newark flights

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LaGuardia Airport sees 5.7% increase in arrivals

By Doyinsola Oladipo

NEW YORK, May 23 (Reuters) - Passenger traffic and

demand have declined sharply at New Jersey's Newark Liberty

International Airport, according to data from two travel

companies, after a series of air traffic disruptions prompted

cautious travelers to transit through nearby airports.

Since April 28, the number of travelers selecting Newark

as their arrival airport declined 19% and about 15% fewer

travelers chose the airport for departure, according to Booking

Holdings' ( BKNG ) unit Kayak. The data suggests that reports

about safety have affected traveler behavior.

Travelers are braving longer commutes to avoid Newark, the

second-largest of three New York metropolitan area airports,

after several telecom outages. On April 28, a 30- 90-second

radar and telecommunications blackout led to dozens of

diversions and cancellations and raised anxieties among flyers.

The thousands of daily social media conversations about the

airport remain 98% negative, according to social media analytics

company Sprout Social.

The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration said it will

require flight cuts at Newark to address congestion.

"If they can get into LaGuardia, that's their number one

pick, then JFK and then Newark," Kayak CEO Steve Hafner told

Reuters. "Even if they live on the west side of Manhattan,

because you just can't afford to risk a three- or four- hour

delay."

Passenger arrivals at Newark from April 28 to May 20

declined about 13% from the year-ago period, according to

Italy-based Data Appeal, a tourism data provider, while

passenger arrivals to LaGuardia increased 5.7% in the same

period, though JFK traffic fell 7% in that time due to reduced

international travel demand.

Before the outages, total passenger volumes in March were

down 2.7% year-over-year at Newark, according to data from the

Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.

"I actually don't like any other airport other than Newark,"

said Gabrielle J., 24, of Newark who said she will fly from JFK

to the Caribbean this summer. "As the outages happened, we were

in the process of booking. So we were like, 'okay, now we

definitely can't fly from Newark.'"

Runway repairs at Newark set to be completed by June 15 have

also contributed to the airport's lagging performance.

"I've heard that it will hopefully get fixed by June. I

would love for that to happen," said San Francisco resident Stef

Anderson, 28.

Anderson said her United San Francisco-to-Newark flight on

May 16 was delayed by more than eight hours before eventually

being canceled. She hopes her May 28 flight to Paris won't meet

the same fate, because her premier silver status on United means

she plans on sticking with that airline.

"They have me in golden handcuffs - otherwise I would fly

Alaska," she said.