Actually 78.6 million foreign tourists came to this country in 2017, up from 76.8 million in 2016, which was slightly lower than the number who came in 2015.
I guess they came for the good things this country has to offer,, and can overlook a few minor inconveniences, unlike many spoiled American complainers
1
Just our dear old capitalism at work. Keep as few workers on hand as possible, and pay them as LITTLE as possible, and hope it all works out.
6
This is why one should always plan (especially traveling this time of year) on the possibility you will not reach your destination on time, either arriving or heading home. Also why it's best not to bring more than you can carry on.
7
While the Port Authority, the Airlines and Ground Services Contractors surely share much of the blame, the fault lies with the taxpayers / consumers -- us. We simply won't pay for anything. We'll happily pack our bags to ship off to whatever city we tourists are currently wrecking for its own inhabitants, all the while expecting those unhappy natives to provide us with clean, efficient, European / Asian-style airports, graffiti-free public transportation to and from, and safe, on-time arrivals and departures. We want clean pillows and blankets, checked baggage, snacks and meal service. We demand a host of micro-services (fast cab lines, Lyft pickup points close to the terminal, fast parking). This is to say nothing of all the services we've lost -- porters, ticket agents -- millennials don't know this but there used to be a person who checked your baggage claim receipt to make sure the luggage you were taking was actually yours.
We won't pay the bill of fare, and we won't pay taxes, and we rationalize it with Economics! and then we complain bitterly to anyone who'll listen about how miserable flying / traveling is, and the fact is, we're getting exactly what we paid for. Plus a trip through the TSA line.
13
JFK is always a disfunctional mess, even when the weather is good. Reason is an inadequate number of gates, and terminals run by different companies or airlines separate from the Port Authority.
Just listen to the air traffic control ground frequency from JFK (look up Kennedy Steve on Youtube to get an idea). Even during good weather you hear plenty of stories of planes waiting on taxiways because their gate is not available yet. Worst offenders are Terminal 2 and 4 (Delta) and especially Terminal 1.
I experienced this myself on Fri Dec 15th flying to JFK on Air France. It was cold that day but the airport was running fine. After landing on time we had to wait on the tarmac for 90 minutes before a gate became available for us at Terminal 1. And this was during good operations. Personally for that reason I will not fly into/out of Terminal 1 any more.
Port Authority should force terminal operators to work together when there are big problems, and JFK needs more gates (existing terminals or a new one), OR less landing slots given out. And the PA should not tweet that the airport will open soon when it didn't in the end.
5
Close to normal? I was on two Sunday flights coming into JFK. The first, which was delayed, took off at 9 instead of 1, arriving at 5 am. The second, which I'd rebooked when the first was delayed, ended up taking off at 9 am Monday, arriving after 5 pm. The same flight numbers on Monday were both severely delayed. Seriously, that's close to normal? I'm glad I saw the writing on the wall, cancelled my Delta flight and was able to use miles to rebook with United to come in through Newark. This is what you get from crminal inefficiency, lack of oversight and cronyism. It's almost as bad as the MTA. Lucky no terrorists happened to notice--they'd have had a field day.
2
It's shocking how New York, with its dysfunctional subway system and mismanaged airports, is beginning to feel like a Third World city. How much of that is due to corruption?
7
"...an airport that is a vital cog in the global travel network..." Funny, but on first reading, my eye saw "a vital clog". Probably just my aversion to flying taking over...
7
What happens when you subcontract critical functions thinking you will save money. At some point, it will come back and bite you. The big corporate, short term mindset is going to ruin everything.
13
PRIVATIZATION!!
I can'y give you the exact date, but 30+ years ago people either worked for the airlines or the Port Authority. Security Guards, Taxi Dispatchers, parking lot attendants etc. were employed directly by the Port Authority of New York & New Jersey. At some point the PA decided to contract out for these workers. While the PA often included a minimum salary and benefit level in the bid packages, essentially dozens of different contractors became the new employers. While often workers were retained lower pay checks were the norm as the lowest qualified bidder got the contract. Eventually the airlines followed suit contracting out cleaning services, food and even mechanical work.
The Port Authority may "manage" the airport but do they really run the airport? Contractors and workers often turn over every three years, bringing in new and inexperienced people. So much harder to coordinate services with a myriad of contractors, thus enabling the PA to shift the blame to others.
IN our dangerous world do we really want the airports run by the lowest bidders?
24
At one time, this might have been considered a national security issue. Travelers come from all over the country and the world, and they need to be welcomed in a secure way. How is this safe? Budget cuts and lack of will about doing "great things" have created airports which can't handle ordinary weather, let alone climate change. Of course travelers are frustrated. Who realized that they were flying into a poorly managed, outdated third world style airport? Where are our elected leaders? Do they care at all?
6
Infrastructure, infrastructure, infrastructure....roads, airports, bridges, subways, ports, rail, telecommunications byways, etc. Without these in top working order, a country cannot function. Infrastructure, and its maintenance and improvement, is not glamorous and when working well, is largely unnoticed. But when it fails, things go horribly wrong because of long periods of neglect.
10
It's just astonishing how much better an airport EWR is than JFK. I wish the Times would try to get to the bottom of that one.
EWR always seems to have its act together -- everything from signage to help desk personnel and security is well organized, equipment in bathrooms and terminals (such as cell phone charging and water bottle fillers) is thoughfully placed and actually works. EWR is just a well run, flyer-friendly airport. JFK is just the opposite -- it's a disorganized mess and all kinds of things are always in disarray or broken.
Then when you combine the vastly better parking situation at EWR and better highway access -- even if an EWR ticket costs $100 more than the same flight out of JFK, I'm happy to pay the difference.
3
Those poor gate agents, customer service agents, and all of the other people who staff an airline and an airport are paid a pittance, yet they were the ones being verbally abused by irate customers, like the man who insisted that the agent get him to Poland.
16
And the sad thing is, some will likely get fired despite none of this being their fault.
4
Overpopulation, inadequate infrastructure.
7
Don't want to hear any more jokes about Southerns in the winter when the largest international airport in New York doesn't even know how to insulate it's pipes.
I am sure one of the 15 unions out there will fix it next week sometime. Good Luck.
4
You do know that Yankee money built Charlotte don't you?
4
Many decades ago it was the rule in our NJ family- fly into EWR or get yourself home from JFK. And EWR is still how we roll today from all points foreign and domestic. Try it; you'll like it.
1
Where are all these people going, why are they going there, and do they need to go.
Maybe before screaming and losing your temper at agents that can't do anything about it, explain why you're not sitting safely at home instead of flying around in the middle of winter, hoping to hopscotch around major storms because you're special.
13
I am pretty sure most of them are travelling because they need to or have to. Some of them for work related reasons, some to see their loved ones whom they haven't seen for ages, some to give support to their loved ones in life or death situations, who knows? They certainly are not doing it for the fun of it or to pick on airport staff or just to irate the likes of you.
5
Sorry, expat, most are traveling by choice not “most” because they “have to”. We mix the two up a lot nowadays believing that want is tantamount to a necessity.
1
Regardless of why the are traveling, it's not ok to pick on airport staff.
1
What was it I read in the news this morning about some kind of masochist? Or the trite expression along the lines of ‘stay safe and stay warm’?
As long as people continue to obey that herding instinct (such as for example, completely open highway lanes, except those packets & “snarls” of cars, always with that one individual challenging others, switching lanes, getting into accidents - all within the confines of a mere quarter-mile distance, on a highway that could be thousands of miles long), And always get into those cluster freaking traffic jams (Then somebody breaks down and pops the hood) . And where are all these wayward traveler’s going?
To the airport! The news headlines will never continue to stop writing themselves.
"Around the world, airlines were reading that forecast as a green light to take off for long hauls to New York City. As late as 6:20 p.m., the Port Authority was still sending out tweets that it expected to reopen Kennedy that night."
That seems to be the beginning of the problem. Perhaps the PA shouldn't send out tweets optimistically saying the airport will reopen until they know for sure the airport will reopen.
What possible good does a message like that do, even if the airport does open as planned?
10
I landed at Terminal 4 on a Delta flight from California in the middle of this chaos on Saturday. Indescribable and totally unacceptable. Not only was there a massive lack of staffing, but those there were not deployed in areas of help to passengers. Told that there was no staff to unload the luggage after hours waiting on the runway, but no word about what their plans were for our luggage for two full days. This caused me to make the trip back to JFK yesterday to look for myself. Another nightmare made worse by total lack of anywhere near sufficient staffing. Believe me, there was still chaos 4 days after a few inches, not feet, of snow. Total lack of direction by Delta. My flight should never have taken off from California under these conditions.
12
The whole profit idea of our corporate friends these days is to operate with as few workers as possible and pay them a LITTLE as possible. That's our dear old capitalism at work!
4
We avoid JFK at all cost. One nightmare experience in June there years back turned us off of it and there are many other options now. The place is old!
6
There should be the same sign prominently displayed at the entrances to Penn Station, JFK and La Guardia airports: Abandon all hope ye who enter.
17
Love Is that Dante's hell? Or from Orfeo?
'Private terminal operators are reluctant to turn away arrivals because they are payed for each flight they accept'. Capitalism is so wonderful.
13
Because the government run PANYNJ does such bang up work!
1
"An investigation is underway to determine what went wrong"? Nobody in the PA took responsibility and did their job. Do we really need to waste taxpayer dollars to show that it was once again the inept PA that caused the problem? The Port Authority is responsible, period. The PA has the over-arching view of the airport, the capacity, the grounds, the facilities. An airline only understands their piece of the pie. The PA needs to take a more active role in managing ALL of their airports. Not a single New York area airport has a plan because the PA lets the airlines make the decisions. Years / decades of poor PA oversight at LaGuardia is a prime example what happens with the Port Authority's hands-off approach. JFK is heading down the same path. Thank You, Port Authority, for making the United States and JFK a worldwide embarrassment.
7
As the only major NYC International airport along with EWR, there needs to be a "reliever" plan for situations which will arise, like this storm, hurricanes, blizzards ,etc.
Certain military airfields must be fitted up to handle passengers, when necessary. Passengers can be deplaned quickly, and get on a bus back to their original destination area. As PULSATION said, better a warm hotel and meals, than days of misery.
There are a lot of military airports with long runways, especially around DC and Virginia.
This abuse is so unnecessary and would not occur if our well paid managers had any interest in doing something. I think all politicians by law, should only fly commercial!!
9
Brilliant idea!
1
JFK is one of the worst large airports in the world, if not THE worst of all. Obvious inefficient handling of flights and resources, there are similar sized airports that don´t require you wait 1+ hour on the runway before your airplane can take off, and very long waits after you land, just to get to your gate. Very long walks inside the airport to get anywhere, with poor signaling exclusively in English (why, since this supposedly is an international airport?) completes the picture
6
Uh snow.
Yes, JFK is a long drawn out disaster. Want to know what's worse? Taking the problem plagued, urine reeking, decrepit, unreliable subway to JFK.
I'm a nearly 40 year resident of NYC. This year my wife retires. We're out, and not a moment too soon. Yes, we'll miss the great arts and theater. But the rest of it, the day to day abuse; who needs it? The city is always available for visit.
19
I was at Kennedy on July 7, last summer. A perfect, blue sky, summer evening. No weather problems at all.
The plane arriving to take me to Europe landed on time, but it too had no available gate. It took 2 hours for it to reach my gate, and then more time for it to deplane its passengers, be cleaned and become ready to accept us departing souls. Even the flight crew were standing around at the door to the jetway, waitng, waiting, waiting...
Of course this caused a cascade of delays on the other end, and I spend 4 hours in Dusseldorf airport waiting for a new connection to Venice. Air Berlin, my carrier, did a great job of finding another connector for me, but my transit from Ohio to Venice took 32 hours, mostly because Kennedy couldn't handle its incoming traffic.
21
The weather was extraordinarily lousy. You cannot plan for every single contingency. Going forward they'll do better. There are about 9 terminals at JFK. Be thankful that only one had a big weather-related problem.
2
While not a popular opinion, honestly, too many people are traveling. You only have to struggle along the side walks of New York or any of it's popular tourist sites (the same applies in many other famed parts of the world) to immediately recognize how too many people are simply putting too much strain on fairly finite resources.
Due to cheap airfares people have come to think that travel to anywhere at any time is now virtually a right. But planes can only hold so many people and carry so much weight, airports only have so many gates and taxi space, there are only so many hotel rooms, etc. Look at how crowded most flights are, yet people act stunned that they must wait days, sometimes, to get space on another one.
I don't know that much can be done from a regulatory stand point about this, for really it is up to travelers to accept that going to some places bears a heavy price if things go wrong. Despite some of the stories most travel is not as necessary as people love to portray it (no, not everyone really "needs" to all go somewhere on the same two day weekend). Our society constantly conflates need with want.
25
I kinda have to disagree. Airlines know the demand upto the last minute. Its reflected in their prices. They could add a few more planes to up the supply.
They are the ones who are on the cheap.
Our society is just fine. Functioning the way human societies do.
5
Contrary to what a lot of people seem to think, airlines don't have a lot of spare planes laying around as back up capacity. All commercial planes, especially big ones which can cost up around $200,000,000, only earn money to pay off huge acquisition debt when they are flying, not sitting around a hangar in case an extra is needed.
3
"For now, no one has taken full responsibility for the debacle, with
the Port Authority pointing at airlines and terminal operators who
have said little so far." No one will! Why not hand over the whole
operation -- terminals, traffice control, water mains, baggage
carousels, the whole shebang -- to those who manage Incheon in Seoul.
Problem solved.
20
JFK, LAX, IAD - major US gateway airports to and from the world are crumbling, confusing, chaotic, dated and simply ugly. The strange paradox of very expensive eateries, on the one hand, and wires hanging from the ceiling and no bathrooms on the other. I guess just a metaphor for the falling apart infrastructure of this country. Wait until more of the 1 to 2 % fly private jets, then the commercial airports here will go the way of the Greyhound bus terminal. No wonder fewer foreigners want to come here - we are turning into a joke.
69
Where did you get the idea that fewer foreigners want to come here? They seem to be knocking down the gates to visit this country, whether it be Times Square, or Yosemite National Park. Statistics show that the number of visitors increase each year, in spite of our seemingly failing infrastructure. Perhaps foreigners place more value on what we have to offer, than on a few perceived inconveniences.
4
What is wrong with IAD?
2
...and the Presidency into a popularity contest while Wall Street robs and runs the US into Third Worldism. No wonder the Market is soaring. Goldman Sach rule while Blackwater and its contemporaries enforce. Beyond 1984
Just another chapter in the daymare that NYC has become.
10
Huh. EWR and PHL and even White Plaines and Islip weren't operating? How about Baltimore and Hartford? Pittsburgh and Albany? Hello? Hello? Anybody there? Hello? Hello? Hello?
29
JFK is a nightmare even on a good day.
30
Why were incoming international flights not rerouted into other airports outside the area impacted by the storm? Pittsburgh, Detroit, Cleveland, etc.? Once on the ground immediate connections would still not be simple, but at least the passengers would be on the ground and inside a warm building.
22
The problem is that only creates new issues, as some of those smaller airports do not have the capacity to handle the largest of international aircraft, with proper ground equipment or sufficient maneuvering space. This is especially true for really big planes like the A380.
And the "warm building" thing sounds nice, but then you get the pictures of hundreds sleeping on the floors. The airlines are not responsible for providing lodging or meals to all of those displaced passengers as weather and conditions outside the control of the carriers is the cause. And even IF they were, there are rarely hundreds of empty hotel rooms waiting to be assigned to these passengers.
Most flights operate at near capacity on a normal day, it seems, so even getting stranded passengers on a new flight is also an exercise in futility.
Part of the problem we don't like to discuss is that too many people travel. While everyone acts like they "need" to go here or there, the reality is actually quite different. While one can certainly argue that the economic benefit from tourism and travel is huge, it also comes with a huge cost, one that may not be worth it in the long run, with everything always overcrowded and overrun.
6
It sounds like YOU don’t want to travel. Have you analyzed the impact on the economy if no one travels?
1
Standard operating procedures (SOPs) need work at the Port Authority. Any corporation faced with these challenges and disappointments would go back and examine the sets of procedures employees and partners (the airlines, in this case) are expected to adhere to. If all procedures were followed then new ones need to be written. The judges will expect these steps are being taken during pending lawsuits. Oh, one more thing, typically the person in-charge at the time loses their job or gets demoted.
8
The article did not address another scandal here. I flew out of JFK on Swiss Saturday. My bags were left behind. 4 days later I am told the my bags are still at JFK because the Swiss flights are full and they can only send around 10 extra bags a day. So my vacation may be over before I get my bags! Why can’t Swiss send them on other airlines? You would think that Swiss would do everything in its power to reunite customers with their bags but they apparently prefer to ruin their customers’ vacations rather than spend money getting bags to their destination. Aren’t there government rules on this sort of thing?
28
Sorry, James, the U.S. Government doesn't like rules for corporations; so, no, the airlines can do whatever they want. They can cancel a flight, delay a flight, reroute you, send you on another day - anything they want, with no government regulation, and no required compensation for you, the customer, regardless of what you paid for your ticket.
This problem - of airlines making their own rules that favor themselves at every turn - is the real issue. But don't expect it to be solved under this Administration.
7
Perhaps because those other airlines are as full as the Swiss planes! Planes are governed by strict weight limits, and adding extra bags would mean reducing weight in other areas, like taking off passengers instead. Imagine the stink if people are told they are being bumped to make room for late baggage.
1
They could ship those bags via FedEx, DHL, etc. And they'd get a better deal than we would. There really isn't any excuse, except for the fact that they might not still be able to FIND this person's bags yet, and the statement that they are making to him is perhaps only partly true (no space)....
4
I fly internationally several times a year and have been through dozens of airports. Last March, I flew into JFK for the first time in over a decade and it was the worse experience ever! The airport is poorly run, old and over-crowded. Thankfully, I don't go to NY often. The next I visit, though, I won't be going through JFK.
26
This is a national and international embarrassment. Like the MTA this is an agency created to issue tax exempt construction bonds and give the pols cover so they can complain when things go haywire but avoid taking any responsibility.
The agency is too big, has too many responsibilities, is staffed at the upper levels by political appointees and has a history of scandal, ranging from BrdgeGate to overtime padding.
When the leak is shown to have been caused by a contractor cutting corners
on pipe insulation, who will take responsibility.
This was a relatively minor snow and we've had cold weather before. There have been smaller instances of planes being held on taxiways during the summer thunderstorm season. Was nothing learned?
Let's see if procedures can be improved.
33
Far be it from me to defend the Port Authority, but in this case, they are absolutely in the right. Think of it this way: If you are a tenant (as are the terminal operators and airlines at JFK, with the Port Authority as landlord), you are responsible for maintaining your apartment. Your lease holds you accountable for any number of things, including upkeep, cleanliness, and maintaining order (or at least avoiding disorder). Some JFK terminal operators and airlines -- with notable exceptions among the major domestic carriers who behaved responsibly -- acted with little regard for their customers. They compounded their incompetence by waiting far too long to ask for help. and when they did, it fell to their landlord to try to untangle a massive knot of problems not of its creation.
It would be cause for eviction in the apartment scenario. But here, it may not be possible. One hopes, however, that it can provide impetus for positive change. With 60 million annual travelers and growing, JFK cannot afford to have irresponsible tenants behaving badly.
11
JFK cannot afford a landlord that allows its tenants to behave badly. The Port Authority is an absentee landlord - one that is checked out and out of touch but only rears its head when the rent check is late. It is the landlord's responsibility to oversee the tenants. It is the landlord's responsibility to ensure renovations are in line (instead of passing the buck and saying meh, the terminal operator installed that line).
It is the Port Authority's responsibility to close the airport. No airline is willing to make the decision to cease operations and it appears neither was the Port Authority. Running an airport requires a little more than making sure the runways are clear and the lights are on.
2
I am glad that for flight LH400, Lufthansa took the decision to divert my flight tat day to Atlanta. Much farther away from home, but at least we got to sleep in a good hotel and have dinner and breakfast paid for. I did not have to endure the misery in JFK.
31
Lucky for you the you were on a European carrier, for EU rules for EU based carriers are different form US ones. Here, if the cause is weather or something like the chaos at JFK airlines are pretty much off the hook for proving meals and hotels.
19
'It was not clear even on Monday, three days after the epic runway traffic jam, who was supposed to have stopped them."
No one in charge, no one responsible, no ones job on the line.
20