Aviation in the New York metropolitan area

The New York metropolitan area has the busiest airport system in the United States and the second-busiest in the world after London.

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) limits the number of flights per hour but they rank among the top five airports in the United States for delays.

[13] It was followed in 1930 by Floyd Bennett Field: New York City's first municipal airport, built largely to serve the growth of commercial aviation after World War I.

[17] From the 1940s through the 1970s, many airlines provided ticketing, baggage, and airport ground transportation services at remote terminals located in Manhattan.

The need for remote terminals arose because at that time airlines were competing with traditional forms of transportation (e.g., railroads) that operated between city centers and there were limitations in passenger processing capacity and parking supply at airports.

[19] By the early 1970s, there was less need for remote terminals because most airlines had acquired better ticketing and baggage handling facilities at the airports and more air passengers were traveling to or from the suburbs rather than having trip origins or destinations in Manhattan.

[31] In 2003, Newark became the terminus of the world's longest non-stop scheduled airline route, Continental's service to Hong Kong.

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, which has a grandfathered exemption.

[38] Stewart International Airport (SWF) is located about 60 miles (97 km) northwest of the city in Orange County, New York.

In 2007, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey took control of operations at Stewart and has committed $500 million to its upgrade and expansion.

[39] From June 2017 to September 2019 Stewart was the only secondary airport in the New York metro area offering flights to Europe.

The airport is 12 miles (19 km) from midtown Manhattan in the New Jersey Meadowlands, which makes it very popular for private and corporate aircraft.

[44][45] In 1968, the East 60th Street Heliport was opened to divert general aviation aircraft from the major commercial airports to smaller airfields (such as Teterboro), where passengers could board a helicopter and travel onward to Midtown Manhattan; the heliport was shut down in the late 1990s amid noise and safety concerns.

[49] One-third of aircraft in the national airspace system move through the New York area at some point during a typical day.

[51] 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 but was widely opposed.

The New York City Police Department leases facilities for their helicopter operations from the National Park Service.

Naval Air Station Rockaway near Fort Tilden and Miller Field on the South Shore of Staten Island were military airfields facing Lower New York Bay.