Passenger travel volume at Newark Liberty International Airport grew 5 percent from
June 2025 to June 2026 — and was up 3 percent over the first half of the year —
showing it has recovered from challenges affecting travel demand in the first half of
2025, a period marked by Federal Aviation Administration-related staffing issues.
The data, released last week by the Port, showed Newark served 22.8 million
passengers in the first half of 2026.
Despite the increases at Newark, the Port said passenger travel at its four commercial
airports in the metro area was down 2 percent in the first six months of the year in
comparison to the similar period from 2025.
The Port’s four airports (Newark Liberty, JFK, LaGuardia as well as the much smaller
Stewart International in New York) served 67 million passengers, according to data
released by the Port.
The Port said travel demand so far in 2026 for JFK was 5 percent lower than for the
same period in 2025 — and down 3% at LaGuardia.
The Port said the decline is primarily attributable to ongoing macroeconomic uncertainty
and volatile oil prices impacting airfares. Domestic passenger volume continues to be
affected by the residual impact of Spirit Airlines’ cessation of operations in May,
impacting passenger volume at LaGuardia and Newark Liberty International airports.
The largest declines were seen in international travel, with the first half of 2026 down 4
percent compared to the first half of 2025. Domestic travel demand was more resilient,
with an increase of 1 percent in June 2026 compared to June 2025 and up 0.4 percent
over the second quarter of the year.
Travel demand over holidays remained robust.
So far in 2026, a record 2.14 million passengers moved through Port Authority airports
during the Memorial Day travel period of May 21-26, about 50,000 passengers above
the previous record set in 2025. It also surpassed the agency forecast by about 20,000
passengers.
During the July 4 travel period from July 2-6, the airports welcomed approximately 2.1
million passengers, among the top five busiest July 4 periods on record despite severe
storms around the holiday impacting flight operations.
