In 2024, New York City area airports saw their busiest year ever, for the second consecutive year. The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey (PANYNJ) on Tuesday revealed that John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK), LaGuardia (LGA), Newark Liberty International (EWR), and NY Stewart International (SWF) served a record 149.9 million passengers in 2024, surpassing the 143.8 million travelers in 2023.
During the Thanksgiving travel period, from November 25 to December 2, more than 3.4 million travelers passed through PANYNJ airports—an eight percent increase from the same period last year.
Over the peak holiday travel period from December 21, 2024, to January 2, 2025, 5.5 million passengers passed through the airports, a seven percent increase from the previous record set in 2023.
In November, 11.5 million passengers traveled through the airports, a figure that remained “essentially flat” compared to November 2023. The slight one percent decrease is attributed to the later timing of Thanksgiving in 2024, which shifted some holiday travel into December.
This “quirk” helped boost the airport’s December levels to their busiest ever, with 12.5 million passengers, a 5 percent increase from December 2023.
“Reaching nearly 146 million passengers in 2024 is a remarkable milestone and reflects the success of our unprecedented $30 billion in airport redevelopment,” PANYNJ Chairman Kevin O’Toole said. “This record number of travelers signifies a full post-pandemic recovery and highlights the success we’ve seen modernizing the region’s airports into world-class gateways.”
“As we transform Newark Liberty and JFK, the influx of passengers — especially the record-breaking demand for international travel — demonstrates that the future of air travel in New York and New Jersey is stronger than ever.”
The rise in air travel across the tri-state region aligns with major airport upgrades, both recently completed and currently in progress. These projects include the $19 billion “JFK Vision Plan,” which entails the new, $9.5 billion New Terminal One, which broke ground in 2022, the $4.2 billion Terminal 6, which broke ground in February 2023, and the $1.5 billion expansion of Terminal 4.
More than a decade after then-Vice President Joe Biden likened it to a third-world country, LaGuardia Airport is now ranked the best airport in the United States following an $8 billion transformation. The project began in 2016 and included the award-winning transformation of Terminal B.
In October, PANYNJ unveiled the EWR Vision Plan, a long-term project to redevelop EWR. The plan includes building a new Terminal B, enhancing Terminal C, fixing the airport’s confusing roadway network, and replacing the AirTrain system.
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