[2] It is in the southern Hudson Valley, west of Newburgh, south of Kingston, and southwest of Poughkeepsie, approximately 60 miles (97 km) north of Manhattan, New York City.

[5][6] It is included in the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) National Plan of Integrated Airport Systems for 2017–2021, in which it is categorized as a non-hub primary commercial service facility.

The Air National Guard unit has flown support missions not only for U.S. military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan but also for humanitarian relief efforts.

[14][15] It tripled the airport's territory, extending its land well beyond its previous western boundary at Drury Lane, a two-lane rural road.

The state government used its eminent domain powers to take 7,500 acres (30 km2) for terminals, runways and a buffer zone expanding the airport from Newburgh into neighboring towns of Montgomery and a small portion of Hamptonburgh.

[14][15] Area residents who were already fighting a large power plant proposal at nearby Storm King Mountain fiercely fought the expansion.

[15] By the time the land was finally available, the 1973 oil crisis and the attendant increase in the price of jet fuel had forced airlines to cut back, and some of the airport's original backers began arguing it was no longer economically viable.

"[17] The next year the state transferred control from MTA to its own Department of Transportation (NYSDOT), with a mandate to improve and develop the airport.

[citation needed] But those people who remained or moved up from more crowded areas to the south had begun to enjoy the outdoor recreation possibilities the lands, referred to variously as the Stewart Properties or the buffer, offered.

[citation needed] One local hunter, Ben Kissam, formed the Stewart Park and Reserve Coalition (SPARC) in 1987 to oppose efforts to develop the lands.

[citation needed] SWF had occasionally had scheduled air-taxi service, but in April 1990 American Airlines arrived with three Boeing 727-200 nonstops a day to Chicago and three more to its new hub in Raleigh–Durham.

Two years later, after approval by the state's attorney general and comptroller as well as the FAA and the carriers,[18] the contract was awarded to the UK-based National Express PLC, the only one of five bidders to have declined to present at a special forum organized a week prior to award, and also a company Lauder had praised in his book for its success with the UK's national bus service and subsequent acquisition of East Midlands Airport, leading to some suspicions that the state had always intended to give it the airport from the beginning.

NEG (National Express Group) was prepared to pay $35 million for the lease, and after working out the details Pataki handed over a ceremonial key at the passenger terminal in late 2000.

NEG was uninterested in the lands west of Drury Lane, and Pataki announced with the privatization deal that he was directing that ownership as well as management of 5,600 acres (22.4 km2) of the lands west of an envelope DOT retained around Drury for possible future development or disposal be transferred directly to DEC, which has since made that portion Stewart State Forest.

Stewart was one of the many regional airports to be used during the Emergency Ground Stop after the September 11th Attacks, taking in dozens of planes forced to land.

[citation needed] Simultaneously with the privatization, the state proceeded with long-held plans to build a new interchange on Interstate 84 at Drury Lane, which would also be widened.

[19][20] An alternative emerged during a value-engineering study of simply rerouting Drury Lane to create another four-way intersection farther down 17K, which was ultimately done.

In March 2005, an area slated for wetlands mitigation under the plans was found to harbor purple milkweed, a Species of Special Concern on the National Heritage Program's rare plant list.

Orange County was not thrilled with the state's decision to charge it $3.7 million for the area near the exit, saying that it was too much on top of the costs it would incur putting in infrastructure.

Delta pulled out of the airport shortly after the privatization announcement, ostensibly to better serve new routes it had won to Latin America, leaving it to codeshare partners Comair and ASA.

The company has gone through some local management shuffles as well, and the parent corporation's sale of East Midlands, considered the example it would follow with Stewart, was a cause for concern in the region.

The day after the takeover, an opening ceremony was held in which New York State Governor Eliot Spitzer attended and the Port Authority flag was raised.

[29] The Port Authority sees Stewart as offering relief to those airports and (especially) Teterboro, estimating it could handle five times its present passenger volume.

[citation needed] Cargo services are also part of the mix – FedEx Express maintains a large distribution presence just outside the airport, as does the U.S.

Importers of plant and animal products also route their flights to Stewart and the USDA inspection facility for those is nearby, on Drury Lane.

The largest such diversion occurred during the January 2018 blizzard, when a Singapore Airlines Airbus A380 on a Frankfurt-JFK flight diverted to Stewart after JFK closed.

[34] On December 5, 2016, General Manager Edmond Harrison announced that Norwegian Air Shuttle planned to set up a base at Stewart for flights to Europe using its Irish subsidiary.

[37] On May 12, 2023, Frontier Airlines announced that their Stewart to Orlando flights would be cut after July 2, 2023, meaning that their presence in the airport would be coming to an end after less than 2 years.

[2] For the 12-month period ending April 30, 2023 the airport had 37,133 aircraft operations, an average of 102 per day: 63% general aviation, 9% air taxi, 17% military, and 11% scheduled commercial.

In 2006, with construction of the Drury Lane exit underway, Senator Charles Schumer put his weight behind getting federal aid for another long-discussed access improvement: a rail link to the nearby Metro-North Port Jervis Line,[56] to give passengers an express train trip from the airport into the city or Newark Airport via Secaucus Junction.