Port Authority to Take Over Stewart International Airport
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Port Authority to Take Over Stewart International Airport
(January 25, 2007) – In a move to create a fourth major airport to relieve crowding and delays at New York metropolitan airports, the Port Authority of NY & NJ plans to purchase a 93-year operating lease at Stewart International Airport in Newburgh, N.Y., from National Express Corporation for a total price of $78.5 million.
The agency, which expects to take over the airport this October, has already budgeted $150 million for improvements at the Hudson Valley airport, including additional parking and construction of an international passenger terminal. A converted Air Force base that never met its commercial potential, Stewart sits on 2,400 acres and has an 11,818-foot runway.
"The expansion of Stewart Airport is a critical component of the continued growth of the Hudson Valley," said New York Governor Eliot Spitzer. "The Port Authority’s action recognizes that vision and will create a major economic engine for the region with impacts that will reach far beyond the Hudson Valley."
About 300,000 passengers used Stewart last year, but transportation officials project that it could handle 1.5 million and help relieve growing pressure on LaGuardia, JFK International and Newark airports. Since JetBlue Airways and AirTran Airways began offering flights from Stewart recently, use of the airport has skyrocketed. Delta also announced it would offer three flights daily to Atlanta beginning in April.
A new four-lane highway that will connect I-84 directly to Stewart is on target to be complete just in time to handle the increased traffic. Slated to open in December 2007, the $50 million, two-mile-long connector will cut the distance in half between I-84 and the terminal, with just one stoplight from the new Exit 5A.
