Dozens of flights at Newark Liberty International Airport (EWR)
were delayed, some significantly, on Sunday after a fire broke out at Terminal A. The flames appeared to engulf a Starbucks location in the facility.

Airport officials referred to the scene as “a building utility issue” and prompted travelers to check with their airline on the status of their flight.

Terminal A is EWR’s newest terminal, opening in 2023 with state-of-the-art features
.

Starbucks in flames

Aviation watchdog JonNYC shared a picture of the fiery ordeal on X Sunday morning. It is believed the fire broke out during the early morning hours as the terminal appeared to be empty, and the chairs outside of the Starbucks were still positioned on top of the tables.

EWR said on Sunday at 03:30 that “ongoing maintenance work” was going on inside Terminal A and alerted passengers on their way to the airport to “allow extra time when arriving or departing” the facility.

One traveler said on X that alarms could be heard going off at around 04:30. Additionally, they mentioned that the terminal
was closed.

“I arrived 2.5 hours early for a 2.5 hour flight only to find everY TSA employee outside waiting for the terminal to open at 4am. It’s 4:24 am and there are still no employees and the gates are closed. The alarm has gone off 3 times.”

Nearly 20 minutes passed, but the same traveler explained that the terminal was still closed.

“It’s 4:47 terminal still not open, no announcements, people are starting to get nervous,” they said.

Flooding from the sprinklers

JonNYC noted that some flights were delayed
close to three hours as a result. However, inbound flights were also affected. Another frustrated traveler remarked that their Delta Air Lines
flight had been sitting on the tarmac for an hour and a half with “ZERO communication to explain what” was happening.

According to JonNYC, the sprinklers triggered by the fire caused the baggage rooms to flood. It likely caused even more delays for arriving passengers as all bags were reportedly rerouted to Terminals B and C.

Terminal A at Newark Liberty International Airport.

Photo: Port Authority of New York and New Jersey

FlightAware data shows that a total of 187 flights were delayed at EWR on Sunday. 104 originated from the airport, while 83 were inbound from other destinations. United Airlines
, EWR’s largest operator, had 102 delays, while JetBlue Airways
delayed 18 flights. American Airlines
had 16 delays, and Delta had only four. All four carriers operate out of Terminal A.

Resuming operations

By 13:15, EWR confirmed that the situation had been “resolved.”

Frustration from the lengthy delays and little communication from airport officials prompted one traveler to reach out to US Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg to launch an investigation of how the situation was handled.

It is unclear how the fire started, or which Starbucks location it occurred at. Terminal A has two post-security Starbucks locations, but the picture of the incident suggests the flames were at the location on the south side of the terminal’s center concourse, near gate 9, which is commonly utilized by American.

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