By:  Hellen Zaboulani

New Yorkers are making up for lost time with a traveling boom.

As reported by Crain’s NY, passenger traffic in New York City-area airports hit a new high, breaking records in the first quarter of 2023. Some 32 million passengers traveled through John F. Kennedy, LaGuardia and Newark Liberty International airports in the quarter.  The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey announced the new all-time-record on Monday.  The previous benchmark had been 31 million air travelers in 2019’s first quarter.

A significant amount of the traffic growth was attributed to LaGuardia and Newark Airports– both of which have been undergoing renovations.  LaGuardia opened its new Terminal C, for Delta Airlines, last June, following an extensive $4 billion makeover.  Two terminals were replaced at LaGuardia, with 37 new gates installed in a single arrivals-and-departures hall, which is now roughly 85 percent bigger than before.  The state-of-the-art upgrades included modern lighting, murals and sculptures, and additional eateries.  In 2014, President Joe Biden had taken a jab at LaGuardia Airport, saying it was like “some third world country.” At the Ribbon cutting ceremony for the new terminal last summer Gov. Kathy Hochul had proudly noted the progress.  “Every person who travels out of this airport will have an extraordinary experience, unthinkable just a few years ago,” Gov. Hochul had boasted. “Come see this, President Biden, because your jaw is going to drop.”

Newark Airport similarly unveiled its brand-new Terminal A in January.  Roughly $2.7 billion was poured into that terminal, creating a million-square-feet of space with 33 gates accessible for larger, modern aircraft.  Now the terminal is slated to accommodate 13 million passengers annually, up from 9 million before the overhaul. The new terminal boasts four lounges and high-tech technology at the security check-in. Newark Airport had previously been ranked last place of all North American airports by air travelers in a J.D. Power satisfaction survey last September.  “This is an important step forward in our vision to transform the airport into a state-of-the-art gateway to the world,” Rick Cotton, the Port Authority’s executive director, had said at the January unveiling.

As per Crain’s, in addition to the jump in airport traffic, the first quarter of 2023 also saw added car traffic on the roads.  About 28.7 million vehicles crossed the Port Authority’s four bridges and two tunnels moving eastward.  This marks the most traffic since the first quarter of 2008, when 29.7 million eastbound vehicles passed on the crossings.

Notwithstanding, Port Authority train traffic continues to lag.  Ridership on the b-state Trans-Hudson or Path system, which connect downtown Manhattan to commuter hubs including Jersey City, New Jersey, continues to straggle. In the first quarter of 2023, ridership was still just at 59 percent of pre-pandemic levels of ridership seen in 2019.