The

New York metropolitan area The New York metropolitan area, also commonly referred to as the Tri-State area, is the largest metropolitan area in the world by urban landmass, at , and one of the most populous urban agglomerations in the world. The vast metropolitan area ...

has the busiest airport system in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., federal district, five ma ...

and the second busiest in the world after

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

. It is also the most frequently used

port of entry In general, a port of entry (POE) is a place where one may lawfully enter a country. It typically has border security staff and facilities to check passports and visas and to inspect luggage to assure that contraband is not imported. Intern ...

and departure for international flights. In 2011, more than 104 million passengers used the airports under the auspices of the

Port Authority of New York and New Jersey The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, PANYNJ; stylized, in logo since 2020, as Port Authority NY NJ, is a joint venture between the U.S. states of New York and New Jersey, established in 1921 through an interstate compact authorize ...

(PANYNJ). The number increased to 117 million in 2014. The metro area is served by three major airports, John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK),

Newark Liberty International Airport Newark Liberty International Airport , originally Newark Metropolitan Airport and later Newark International Airport, is an international airport straddling the boundary between the cities of Newark in Essex County and Elizabeth in Union Cou ...

(EWR) and

LaGuardia Airport LaGuardia Airport is a civil airport in East Elmhurst, Queens, New York City. Covering , the facility was established in 1929 and began operating as a public airport in 1939. It is named after former New York City mayor Fiorello La Guardia ...

(LGA), which have been operated by the Port Authority since 1947. The

International Air Transport Association airport code An IATA airport code, also known as an IATA location identifier, IATA station code, or simply a location identifier, is a three-character alphanumeric geocode designating many airports and metropolitan areas around the world, defined by the ...

(IATA code) "NYC" is reserved to refer to these three airports. JFK and Newark are connected to regional rail systems by AirTrain JFK and

AirTrain Newark AirTrain Newark is a monorail system connecting the terminals at Newark Liberty International Airport (EWR) and trains at Newark Liberty International Airport Station on the Northeast Corridor (NEC), where transfers are possible to Amtrak and ...

respectively. The

class B airspace The world's navigable airspace is divided into three-dimensional segments, each of which is assigned to a specific class. Most nations adhere to the classification specified by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) and described bel ...

used by the three airports is extremely congested. Despite caps placed by the

Federal Aviation Administration The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is the largest transportation agency of the U.S. government and regulates all aspects of civil aviation in the country as well as over surrounding international waters. Its powers include air traffic m ...

(FAA) limiting the number of flights per hour, they rank among the top five in the United States for delays. In 2012, travel guide

Frommer's Frommer's is a travel guide book series created by Arthur Frommer in 1957. Frommer's has since expanded to include more than 350 guidebooks in 14 series, as well as other media including an eponymous radio show and a website. In 2017, the compan ...

rated three terminals in the region as the worst in the world: JFK Terminal 3, Newark Terminal B and LGA's US Airways terminal. It rated Terminal 5 at JFK as the best in the U.S. The metro area airports also ranked low in 2017 consumer surveys. In addition to JFK, EWR, and LGA, there are satellite or reliever airports in the metro area which provide additional commercial air carrier service, albeit on a much smaller scale, as well as numerous

general aviation General aviation (GA) is defined by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) as all civil aviation aircraft operations with the exception of commercial air transport or aerial work, which is defined as specialized aviation service ...

airports, heliports, and seaplane bases.

History

Teterboro Airport Teterboro Airport is a general aviation relief airport in the boroughs of Teterboro, Moonachie, and Hasbrouck Heights in Bergen County, New Jersey.Flushing Airport opened in 1927, quickly becoming the city's busiest airport; it closed in 1984.

opened in 1928. It was followed by

Floyd Bennett Field Floyd Bennett Field is an airfield in the Marine Park neighborhood of southeast Brooklyn in New York City, along the shore of Jamaica Bay. The airport originally hosted commercial and general aviation traffic before being used as a naval air ...

in 1930; New York City's first municipal airport, it built largely in response to the growth of commercial aviation after World War I.

was opened in 1939, and Floyd Bennett Field was closed for general aviation two years later. John F. Kennedy International Airport opened as Idlewild Airport in 1948. The Cradle of Aviation Museum, the Aviation Hall of Fame and Museum of New Jersey, and Newark Metropolitan Airport Buildings all preserve the history of aviation in the New York metro area.

Airspace

The vast majority of airspace above the metropolitan area is controlled by the

(FAA) and split into complex sectors which organize the flow of inbound and outbound flights to and from the area's many airports, as well as transitory air traffic between neighboring regions. * New York TRACON (N90), located in Westbury, Long Island, is one of seven large terminal radar approach control units in the United States. Its controllers primarily service low-altitude traffic operating among, and around, New York City's

Class B airport The world's navigable airspace is divided into three-dimensional segments, each of which is assigned to a specific class. Most nations adhere to the classification specified by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) and described bel ...

s and their satellites. * New York Center (ZNY), located in

Ronkonkoma, Long Island Ronkonkoma ( ) is a hamlet and census-designated place (CDP) on Long Island in the Town of Islip, New York, United States. Its population was 19,082 at the 2010 census. The Ronkonkoma post office has the ZIP Code 11779, and serves parts of sev ...

, is one of 22

Air Route Traffic Control Center In air traffic control, an area control center (ACC), also known as a center or en-route center, is a facility responsible for controlling aircraft flying in the airspace of a given flight information region (FIR) at high altitudes between ai ...

s (ARTCC) in the United States. It is responsible for high-altitude traffic above both the

New York Metropolitan Area The New York metropolitan area, also commonly referred to as the Tri-State area, is the largest metropolitan area in the world by urban landmass, at , and one of the most populous urban agglomerations in the world. The vast metropolitan area ...

and Philadelphia/Delaware Valley metro area, as well as of oceanic

airspace Airspace is the portion of the atmosphere controlled by a country above its territory, including its territorial waters or, more generally, any specific three-dimensional portion of the atmosphere. It is not the same as aerospace, which is the ...

. The unit originally existed at JFK Airport, before moving in July 1963 to a purpose-built site in Suffolk County. The new Cold War-era facility was designed to resist the effects of a hypothetical nuclear attack. Regulations are in effect in the airspace where flight is permitted under

visual flight rules In aviation, visual flight rules (VFR) are a set of regulations under which a pilot operates an aircraft in weather conditions generally clear enough to allow the pilot to see where the aircraft is going. Specifically, the weather must be better ...

(VFR), the East River VFR corridor and the Hudson River VFR corridor. The southern end of both begins at the

Verrazano-Narrows Bridge The Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge ( ) is a suspension bridge connecting the New York City boroughs of Staten Island and Brooklyn. It spans the Narrows, a body of water linking the relatively enclosed New York Harbor with Lower New York Bay a ...

. The corridor along the

Hudson River The Hudson River is a river that flows from north to south primarily through eastern New York. It originates in the Adirondack Mountains of Upstate New York and flows southward through the Hudson Valley to the New York Harbor between Ne ...

allows VFR flight along the entire length between

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five Boroughs of New York City, boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the List of co ...

and the New Jersey

Hudson Waterfront The Hudson Waterfront is an urban area of northeastern New Jersey along the lower reaches of the Hudson River, the Upper New York Bay and the Kill van Kull. Though the term can specifically mean the shoreline, it is often used to mean the contigu ...

north to the

Alpine Tower The Armstrong Tower, also known as Alpine Tower, is a distinctive (425 foot) tall lattice tower featuring three large cross-arms, located atop the Alpine, New Jersey palisades overlooking the Hudson River a few kilometers north of New York City ...

, while that along the

East River The East River is a saltwater tidal estuary in New York City. The waterway, which is actually not a river despite its name, connects Upper New York Bay on its south end to Long Island Sound on its north end. It separates the borough of Que ...

ends southwest of LGA airspace at the northern end of

Roosevelt Island Roosevelt Island is an island in New York City's East River, within the borough of Manhattan. It lies between Manhattan Island to the west, and the borough of Queens, on Long Island, to the east. Running from the equivalent of East 46th to 8 ...

. As of 2014, about 1% of flights to the Port Authority-controlled airports use the

Next Generation Air Transportation System The Next Generation Air Transportation System (NextGen) is an ongoing United States Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) project to modernize the National Airspace System (NAS). The FAA began work on NextGen improvements in 2007 and plans to finis ...

, which relies on the Global Positioning System instead of radar.

Major commercial airports

John F. Kennedy International Airport

John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK) is the major entry point for international arrivals in the United States, and it is the largest international air freight gateway in the nation by value of shipments. Sections of the airport have been a foreign trade zone since 1984. About 100 airlines from more than 50 countries operate flights to JFK. The JFK–London Heathrow route is the leading U.S. international airport pair with over 2.9 million passengers in 2000. Other top international destinations from JFK are

Charles de Gaulle Airport Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport (french: Aéroport de Paris-Charles-de-Gaulle, ), also known as Roissy Airport or simply Paris CDG, is the principal airport serving the French capital, Paris ( and its metropolitan area), and the largest intern ...

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. ...

Incheon International Airport Incheon International Airport (IIA; ) (sometimes referred to as Seoul–Incheon International Airport) is the largest airport in South Korea. It is the primary airport serving the Seoul Capital Area and one of the largest and busiest airports ...

Seoul Seoul (; ; ), officially known as the Seoul Special City, is the Capital city, capital and largest metropolis of South Korea.Before 1972, Seoul was the ''de jure'' capital of the North Korea, Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea ...

, Barajas Airport in

Madrid Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the second-largest city in the European Union (EU), an ...

Ben Gurion International Airport Ben Gurion International Airport, ; ar, مطار بن غوريون الدولي , commonly known by the Hebrew-language acronym (), is the main international airport of Israel. Situated on the northern outskirts of the city of Lod, it is th ...

Tel Aviv Tel Aviv-Yafo ( he, תֵּל־אָבִיב-יָפוֹ, translit=Tēl-ʾĀvīv-Yāfō ; ar, تَلّ أَبِيب – يَافَا, translit=Tall ʾAbīb-Yāfā, links=no), often referred to as just Tel Aviv, is the most populous city in the G ...

, Cibao International Airport in Santiago de los Caballeros, Las Américas International Airport in

Santo Domingo , total_type = Total , population_density_km2 = auto , timezone = AST (UTC −4) , area_code_type = Area codes , area_code = 809, 829, 849 , postal_code_type = Postal codes , postal_code = 10100–10699 ( Distrito Nacional) , webs ...

Frankfurt Airport Frankfurt Airport (; german: link=no, Flughafen Frankfurt Main , also known as ''Rhein-Main-Flughafen'') is a major international airport located in Frankfurt, the fifth-largest city of Germany and one of the world's leading financial centre ...

Frankfurt Frankfurt, officially Frankfurt am Main (; Hessian: , " Frank ford on the Main"), is the most populous city in the German state of Hesse. Its 791,000 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located on its ...

, Narita and Tokyo International Airports in

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and List of cities in Japan, largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, ...

Changi Airport Singapore Changi Airport, commonly known as Changi Airport , is a major civilian international airport that serves Singapore, and is one of the largest transportation hubs in Asia. As one of the world's busiest airports by international passen ...

Singapore Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, borde ...

, and Guarulhos International Airport in

Sao Paulo SAO or Sao may refer to: Places * Sao civilisation, in Middle Africa from 6th century BC to 16th century AD * Sao, a town in Boussé Department, Burkina Faso * Saco Transportation Center (station code SAO), a train station in Saco, Maine, U. ...

. The airport is located along

Jamaica Bay Jamaica Bay is an estuary on the southern portion of the western tip of Long Island, in the U.S. state of New York. The estuary is partially man-made, and partially natural. The bay connects with Lower New York Bay to the west, through Rock ...

near Howard Beach, Queens. The elevated AirTrain JFK

people mover A people mover or automated people mover (APM) is a type of small scale automated guideway transit system. The term is generally used only to describe systems serving relatively small areas such as airports, downtown districts or theme parks. ...

system connects JFK to the New York City Subway and the Long Island Rail Road.

Newark Liberty International Airport

Opened in 1928,

(EWR) is considered the first major commercial airport in North America.

Amelia Earhart Amelia Mary Earhart ( , born July 24, 1897; disappeared July 2, 1937; Presumption of death, declared dead January 5, 1939) was an American aviation pioneer and writer. Earhart was the first women in aviation, female aviator to fly solo acro ...

dedicated the Newark Metropolitan Airport Administration Building in 1935. It is the fifth busiest international air gateway. and the busiest in the region in number of flights. In 2003, Newark became the terminus of the world's longest non-stop scheduled airline route, Continental's service to Hong Kong. In 2004, Singapore Airlines broke Continental's record by starting direct 18-hour flights to Singapore. The airport is located in

Newark, New Jersey Newark ( , ) is the List of municipalities in New Jersey, most populous City (New Jersey), city in the U.S. state of New Jersey and the county seat, seat of Essex County, New Jersey, Essex County and the second largest city within the New Yo ...

, about west of downtown Manhattan. The top three international destinations from Newark are

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most pop ...

and

. It connects to

NJ Transit New Jersey Transit Corporation, branded as NJ Transit, and often shortened to NJT, is a state-owned public transportation system that serves the U.S. state of New Jersey, along with portions of New York State and Pennsylvania. It operates bus, ...

commuter trains and

Amtrak The National Railroad Passenger Corporation, doing business as Amtrak () , is the national passenger railroad company of the United States. It operates inter-city rail service in 46 of the 48 contiguous U.S. States and nine cities in Canada ...

intercity trains via the

monorail.

LaGuardia Airport

(LGA), the smallest of New York area's primary airports, handles domestic air service and flights to Canada. It is named for Fiorello H. La Guardia, the city's Depression-era mayor known as a reformist and strong supporter of the

New Deal The New Deal was a series of programs, public work projects, financial reforms, and regulations enacted by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in the United States between 1933 and 1939. Major federal programs agencies included the Civilian Con ...

. The airport is located in northern Queens, about from downtown Manhattan. In 1984, a "perimeter rule" was introduced to reduce congestion, which prohibits incoming and outgoing flights that exceed 1,500 miles (2,400 km) except on Saturdays, when the ban is lifted, and to

Denver, Colorado Denver () is a consolidated city and county, the capital, and most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Its population was 715,522 at the 2020 census, a 19.22% increase since 2010. It is the 19th-most populous city in the United ...

, which has a grandfathered exemption. As a result, most transcontinental and international flights use JFK and Newark (although there are short-haul international flights to the Canadian cities of

Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous city in the Canadian province of Quebec. Founded in 1642 as '' Ville-Marie'', or "City of Mary", it is named after Mount Royal, the triple- ...

and

Ottawa Ottawa (, ; Canadian French: ) is the capital city of Canada. It is located at the confluence of the Ottawa River and the Rideau River in the southern portion of the province of Ontario. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Quebec, and forms the core ...

). Plans were announced in July 2015 to entirely rebuild LaGuardia Airport itself in a multibillion-dollar project to replace its aging facilities, and this project would accommodate a new AirTrain LaGuardia connection.

Other commercial airports

Long Island MacArthur Airport

Long Island MacArthur Airport Long Island MacArthur Airport (formerly known as Islip Airport) is a public airport in Ronkonkoma, New York, on Long Island. The Town of Islip owns and operates the airport, which serves about two million airline passengers a year, as well as ...

(ISP), otherwise known as Islip Airport, is located in Ronkonkoma, New York, in Suffolk County, about east of

. It is owned and operated by the Town of Islip, and has been designated by the FAA an official New York airport. This airport is primarily served by

low-cost carrier A low-cost carrier or low-cost airline (occasionally referred to as '' no-frills'', ''budget'' or ''discount carrier'' or ''airline'', and abbreviated as ''LCC'') is an airline that is operated with an especially high emphasis on minimizing ope ...

Southwest Airlines Southwest Airlines Co., typically referred to as Southwest, is one of the major airlines of the United States and the world's largest low-cost carrier. It is headquartered in Dallas, Texas, and has scheduled service to 121 destinations in the ...

Frontier Airlines Frontier Airlines is a major ultra-low-cost U.S. airline headquartered in Denver, Colorado. It operates flights to over 100 destinations throughout the United States and 31 international destinations, and employs more than 3,000 staff. The ca ...

, and

Breeze Airways Breeze Airways is a low-cost U.S. airline headquartered in Cottonwood Heights, Utah. The airline was founded by David Neeleman, who previously co-founded Morris Air, WestJet, JetBlue, and Azul Linhas Aereas. Breeze's operations launched on May ...

to destinations mostly in the southeast.

Stewart International Airport

Stewart International Airport Stewart International Airport, officially New York Stewart International Airport , is a public/military airport in Orange County, New York, United States. It is in the southern Hudson Valley, west of Newburgh, south of Kingston, and southwest o ...

(SWF) is located about northwest of the city in

Orange County, New York Orange County is a county located in the U.S. state of New York. As of the 2020 census, the population was 401,310. The county seat is Goshen. This county was first created in 1683 and reorganized with its present boundaries in 1798. Orange ...

. In 2007, the

took control of operations at Stewart and has committed $500 million to its upgrade and expansion. From June 2017 to September 2019 Stewart was the only secondary airport in the New York metro area offering flights to Europe. This was enabled by a main runway of over 11,000 feet.

Trenton–Mercer Airport

Trenton–Mercer Airport (TTN) is located in and owned by

Mercer County, New Jersey Mercer County is a county located in the U.S. state of New Jersey. Its county seat is Trenton, also the state capital, but also directly borders the Philadelphia metropolitan area and is included within the Federal Communications Commission ...

, near Trenton. It began to see a return of scheduled passenger service in 2013, becoming a focus city for Frontier Airlines, servicing 9 nonstop destinations.

Westchester County Airport

Westchester County Airport Westchester County Airport is a county-owned airport in Westchester County, New York, three miles (6 km) northeast of downtown White Plains, with territory in the towns of North Castle and Harrison, New York, and village of Rye Brook, ...

(HPN) is located in and owned by

Westchester County, New York Westchester County is located in the U.S. state of New York. It is the seventh most populous county in the State of New York and the most populous north of New York City. According to the 2020 United States Census, the county had a population ...

, about north of the city, along the border with Connecticut. It sees service to a dozen destinations, and has seen increases of nearly 100,000 enplanements in the period from 2008 to 2010.

General aviation airports

Republic Airport

Republic Airport (FRG) is a

reliever airport located in East Farmingdale, Long Island, on the border of Nassau and

Suffolk Suffolk () is a ceremonial county of England in East Anglia. It borders Norfolk to the north, Cambridgeshire to the west and Essex to the south; the North Sea lies to the east. The county town is Ipswich; other important towns include L ...

counties. It is the busiest general aviation airport in the New York Metropolitan region, primarily serving Long Island and is owned by the New York State Department of Transportation, who contracts its operation to a third-party. The airport is about from midtown Manhattan.

Teterboro Airport

Teterboro Airport Teterboro Airport is a general aviation relief airport in the boroughs of Teterboro, Moonachie, and Hasbrouck Heights in Bergen County, New Jersey.general aviation General aviation (GA) is defined by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) as all civil aviation aircraft operations with the exception of commercial air transport or aerial work, which is defined as specialized aviation service ...

reliever airport located in the Boroughs of Teterboro, Moonachie, and Hasbrouck Heights in Bergen County, New Jersey. It is owned by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, who contracts its operation to a third-party company. The airport is from midtown Manhattan in the

New Jersey Meadowlands New Jersey Meadowlands, also known as the Hackensack Meadowlands after the primary river flowing through it, is a general name for the large ecosystem of wetlands in northeastern New Jersey in the United States, a few miles to the west of N ...

, which makes it very popular for private and corporate aircraft.

Additional general aviation airports

In addition, there are many smaller general aviation airports, as well as several

seaplane A seaplane is a powered fixed-wing aircraft capable of takeoff, taking off and water landing, landing (alighting) on water.Gunston, "The Cambridge Aerospace Dictionary", 2009. Seaplanes are usually divided into two categories based on their tec ...

bases in the port district and the adjoining region. Among them are: * Brookhaven Airport (HWV) *

Central Jersey Regional Airport Central Jersey Regional Airport is a privately owned, public use airport in Somerset County, New Jersey, United States. The airport is one nautical mile (2 kilometre, km) south of the central business district of Manville, New Jersey, ...

(JVI) *

Danbury Municipal Airport Danbury Municipal Airport is a public use general aviation and commercial airport located three miles (5 km) southwest of the central business district of Danbury, in Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States. The airport opened in 1930 ...

(DXR) * Essex County Airport (CDW) *

Greenwood Lake Airport Greenwood Lake Airport is a public use airport located one nautical mile (2 km) east of the central business district of West Milford, in Passaic County, New Jersey, United States. The airport is owned by New Jersey Department of Tr ...

(4N1) * Hackettstown Airport (N05) *

Hudson Valley Regional Airport Hudson Valley Regional Airport , formerly known as Dutchess County Airport, is a county-owned public-use airport located on State Route 376 in the Town of Wappinger, Dutchess County, New York, United States, four miles (6 km) south of the ce ...

(POU) * Igor I. Sikorsky Memorial Airport (BDR) * Lincoln Park Airport (N07) * Linden Airport (LDJ) *

Little Ferry Seaplane Base Little Ferry Seaplane Base is a public-use seaplane base located one nautical mile (1.852 km) east of the central business district of the borough of Little Ferry on the Hackensack River in Bergen County, New Jersey, United States. The bas ...

(2N7) * Meriden Markham Municipal Airport (MMK) * Monmouth Executive Airport (BLM) * Morristown Municipal Airport (MMU) * New York Skyports Inc. Seaplane Base (QNY) *

Newton Airport (New Jersey) Newton Airport was a privately owned, public-use airport three miles south of Newton, in Sussex County, New Jersey. It closed in 2013, after it was purchased for $3.5M by Public Service Electric & Gas Company to be used to stage electrical po ...

(3N5) * Old Bridge Airport (3N6) * Princeton Airport (39N) * Solberg–Hunterdon Airport (N51) * Somerset Airport (SMQ) * Trenton–Robbinsville Airport (N87) * Waterbury–Oxford Airport (OXC)

Heliports

There are numerous heliports located around the New York metro area. Three of the busiest are located in Manhattan: * Downtown Manhattan Heliport, located at the eastern end of

Wall Street Wall Street is an eight-block-long street in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan in New York City. It runs between Broadway in the west to South Street and the East River in the east. The term "Wall Street" has become a metonym for ...

on Pier 6, on the East River, was the first heliport in the United States to be certified for scheduled passenger helicopter service by the FAA. The heliport was the normal landing spot for US Presidents visiting New York. The soundproof terminal contains gift shops, administrative offices, a VIP lounge and general passenger waiting area, as well as X-ray and bomb-detection machines at a security checkpoint. * East 34th Street Heliport, which consists of a terminal building and fuel filling station and averages 20,000 take-offs and landings each year. * West 30th Street Heliport opened on September 26, 1956. In December of that year,

New York Airways New York Airways was a helicopter airline in the New York City area, founded in 1949 as a mail and cargo carrier. On 9 July 1953 it may have been the first scheduled helicopter airline to carry passengers in the United States, with headquarters ...

began scheduled passenger flights, the first airline flights to Manhattan. In the late 1960s and again for a short period in the late 1970s, a heliport operated from the roof of the Pan Am Building in

midtown Manhattan Midtown Manhattan is the central portion of the New York City borough of Manhattan and serves as the city's primary central business district. Midtown is home to some of the city's most prominent buildings, including the Empire State Buildin ...

, before a fatal accident caused it to close.

Seaplanes

Since 2015, New Jersey has largely prohibited the use of seaplanes on navigable waters. * New York Skyports Seaplane Base *

(no fights since 2014)

Capacity and delays

An average of 40% of passenger aircraft delays in the U.S. originated in the New York metropolitan area, some in the area and others due to cascading effects. One-third of aircraft in the national airspace system move through the New York area at some point during a typical day. The three major airports rank among the worst airports for delays the USA despite FAA caps limiting the number of takeoffs and landings per hour to 83 at both JFK and EWR and 71 at LGA. While an increased demand for passengers and freight is foreseen limited land availability in the heavily urbanized area and prohibitive costs constrict expansion of JFK, EWR, and LGA. Approaches to mitigate delays and increase capacity include costly runway expansion projects and greater use of reliever airports. Before the establishment of the Great Swamp National Wildlife Refuge in 1960 the PANYNJ had proposed to build an airport at the location in

Morris County, New Jersey Morris County is a county located in the U.S. state of New Jersey, about west of New York City. According to the 2020 census, the county's population was enumerated at 509,285,Federal Aviation Administration The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is the largest transportation agency of the U.S. government and regulates all aspects of civil aviation in the country as well as over surrounding international waters. Its powers include air traffic m ...

, the Regional Plan Association, the PANYNJ, and others have identified few sites within the region which would satisfy the requirements for a major airport and evaluated potential dispersion of flights to outlying commercial airports, including

Atlantic City International Airport Atlantic City International Airport is a shared civil-military airport northwest of Atlantic City, New Jersey, in Egg Harbor Township, the Pomona section of Galloway Township and in Hamilton Township. The airport is accessible via Exit 9 on ...

(ACY),

Lehigh Valley International Airport Lehigh Valley International Airport (formerly Allentown–Bethlehem–Easton International Airport) is a domestic airport located in Hanover Township in Lehigh County, Pennsylvania. Lehigh Valley International Airport is located in the center ...

(ABE), Bradley International Airport (BDL), and Tweed New Haven Regional Airport (HVN). In July 2013, the PANYNJ took control of ACY.

Defunct airports

The first municipal airport in New York City was

, developed to lure business away from Newark, but it was ultimately unsuccessful as a general aviation airport and became a Naval Air Station in 1941. It is now part of

Gateway National Recreation Area Gateway National Recreation Area is a U.S. National Recreation Area in New York City and Monmouth County, New Jersey. It provides recreational opportunities that are not commonly found in a dense urban environment, including ocean swimming, bi ...

. The

New York City Police Department The New York City Police Department (NYPD), officially the City of New York Police Department, established on May 23, 1845, is the primary municipal law enforcement agency within the City of New York, the largest and one of the oldest i ...

leases facilities for their helicopter operations from the

National Park Service The National Park Service (NPS) is an List of federal agencies in the United States, agency of the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government within the United States Department of the Interior, U.S. Department of ...

. Flushing Airport was another early airport in New York City. It opened in 1927 and was the busiest airport in New York for a time. A decade later it was overshadowed by the larger LaGuardia Airport located nearby. The airport was decommissioned in 1984 after a fatal accident in 1977. Now the area is wetlands owned by the

New York City Economic Development Corporation New York City Economic Development Corporation (NYCEDC) is a nonprofit corporation whose stated mission is to "leverage the city’s assets to create beneficial jobs that drive growth. This ensures equitable and sustainable development across al ...

Holmes Airport Holmes Airport (occasionally known as Grand Central Air Terminal and Grand Central Airport
. ''www.airfields-f ...

existed in the Jackson Heights section of Queens from 1929 until 1940. It was put out of business by competition from the new LaGuardia Airport, nearby.

Miller Field Miller Field may refer to: Places In the United States * Jessee/Miller Field, Trinity College, Hartford, Connecticut * Zell B. Miller Field, Young Harris, Georgia * Les Miller Field, a baseball venue in Chicago, Illinois * Miller Field (basebal ...

was a military airfield facing

Lower New York Bay Lower New York Bay is a section of New York Bay south of the Narrows (the strait between Staten Island and Brooklyn). The eastern end of the Bay is marked by two spits of land, Sandy Hook, New Jersey, and Rockaway, Queens. The waterway ...

on the South Shore of

Staten Island Staten Island ( ) is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Richmond County, in the U.S. state of New York. Located in the city's southwest portion, the borough is separated from New Jersey by the Arthur Kill and the Kill Van Kull an ...

. It was active from 1921 until 1969. It is now also part of Gateway National Recreation Area.

References

External links

New York area aviation chart (VFR Terminal Area Chart)
(high-resolution TIFF, ~31 MB) * *

* {{Hudson County Transportation Network Aviation in New Jersey Aviation in New York City Port of New York and New Jersey Airports by city Air pollution in New York City