Newark Liberty International Airport

Newark Liberty International Airport , originally Newark Metropolitan Airport and later Newark International Airport, is an international airport straddling the boundary between the cities of Newark in Essex County and Elizabeth in Union County, New Jersey. Located about south of downtown Newark, it is a major gateway to points in Europe, South America, Asia, and Oceania. It is jointly owned by the cities and leased to its operator, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. It is the second-busiest airport in the New York airport system, behind John F. Kennedy International Airport but ahead of LaGuardia Airport.

The airport is located west-southwest of Manhattan in New York City. It is near the Newark Airport Interchange, the junction between Interstate 95 and Interstate 78 (both components of the New Jersey Turnpike), as well as U.S. Routes 1 and 9, which has junctions with U.S. Route 22, Route 81, and Route 21. AirTrain Newark connects the terminals with the Newark Liberty International Airport Station. The station is served by NJ Transit's Northeast Corridor Line and North Jersey Coast Line. Amtrak's Northeast Regional and Keystone Service trains also stop at the station.

The City of Newark built the airport on of marshland in 1928, and the Army Air Corps operated the facility during World War II. The airport was constructed adjacent to Port Newark and U.S. Route 1. After the Port Authority took it over in 1948, an instrument runway, a terminal building, a control tower, and an air cargo center were added. The airport's Building 51 from 1935 is a National Historic Landmark.

During 2022, the airport served 43.4 million passengers, which made it the 29th-busiest airport by passenger traffic in the world. The busiest year to date was 2019 when it served 46.3 million passengers. Newark serves 50 carriers and is the largest hub for United Airlines by available seat miles. The airline serves about 63% of passengers at EWR making it the largest tenant at the airport. United and FedEx Express, its second-largest tenant, operate in three buildings on of airport property.

History

From the 1920s, Newark, New Jersey, was the site of two airfields – Heller Field, which opened in 1919, and Hadley Field, which opened in 1924 – used by the United States airmail service. In May 1921, Heller Field was closed and all air mail services moved to Hadley Field, which by 1927 also served four airlines. The US Postal Service, however, desired to have an airfield closer to New York City. In 1927, people and organizations both national and local in scope began calling for a new airport in the area of Newark, including Newark's mayor, Thomas Raymond.

On August 3, 1927, Raymond ordered plans for a new airport. Construction, estimated to cost $6 million , began on April 1, 1928, along US Route 1 and Port Newark. The construction involved a land reclamation project to create of level ground, above sea level to prevent flooding, upon which a runway was laid. In addition to the of earth required for the reclamation, 7,000 Christmas trees and 200 bank safes donated by a local junk vendor were used. The airport opened on October 1, 1928, as the Newark Metropolitan Airport. It was the first major airport to serve the New York metropolitan area, and the first commercial airport in the United States with a paved airstrip.

20th century

The first lease for space at Newark Airport was signed by Canadian Colonial Airways in April 1928.

The nation's first air traffic control tower and airport weather station opened at Newark in 1930, and it became the first airport to allow nighttime operations after installing runway lights in 1952. The Art Deco style Newark Metropolitan Airport Administration Building, adorned with murals by Arshile Gorky, was built in 1934 and dedicated by Amelia Earhart in 1935. It served as the terminal until the opening of the North Terminal in 1953. Construction of the Brewster Hangar began in 1937 and continued through 1938. This hangar was the most advanced of its time. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1979 and is now a museum and Port Authority Police headquarters.

Despite this, critics said the airport was poorly designed because there was no separation of incoming and outbound passengers and no thought given to future expansion, though this did not stop Newark from being the busiest commercial airport. United Airlines, American Airlines, Eastern Airlines, and TWA signed 10-year leases with the airport which ended in 1938. Then they would pay on a month-to-month basis until LaGuardia Airport opened in December 1939; by mid-1940, all passenger airlines had left Newark, no longer making it the world's busiest airport.

During World War II, the field was closed to commercial aviation while it was taken over by the United States Army for logistics operations. In 1945, captured German aircraft brought from Europe on HMS ''Reaper'' for evaluation under Operation Lusty were off-loaded at Newark and then flown or shipped to Freeman Field in Indiana or Naval Air Station Patuxent River in Maryland. The airlines returned to Newark in February 1946. In 1948, the city of Newark leased the airport to the Port of New York Authority (now the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey). As part of the deal, the Port Authority took operational control of the airport and began investing heavily in capital improvements, including new hangars, a new terminal and runway 4/22.

On December 16, 1951, a Miami Airlines C-46 bound for Tampa lost a cylinder on takeoff from runway 28 and crashed in Elizabeth, killing 56. On January 22, 1952, an American Airlines CV-240 crashed in Elizabeth while on approach to Runway 6, killing all 23 aboard and seven on the ground. On February 11, 1952, a National DC-6 crashed in Elizabeth after takeoff from runway 24, killing 29 of 63 on board and four on the ground. Much of Newark Airport's traffic shifted to Idlewild after Newark was temporarily closed in February 1952; flights were shifted to LaGuardia Airport and to Idlewild (since renamed as John F. Kennedy International Airport), which could have planes takeoff and land over the water, rather than over the densely populated areas surrounding Newark Airport. The airport remained closed in Newark until November 1952, with new flight patterns that took planes away from Elizabeth. The continued unpopularity and the New York area's growing air traffic led to searches for new airport sites. The Port Authority's proposal to build a new airport at what is now the Great Swamp National Wildlife Refuge was defeated by local opposition.

Through the early 1970s, Newark had a single terminal building located on the north side of the field by what is now Interstate 78. A new control tower opened in 1960, and the terminal was expanded from 26 to 32 gates in 1965. A $200 million expansion of the airport, which was to include three terminals, began in 1967 after three years of planning. In 1973, the airport became Newark International Airport. Former Terminal A and present Terminal B opened in 1973, although some charter and international flights requiring customs clearance remained at the North Terminal. The main building of Terminal C was completed at the same time, but only metal framing work was completed for the terminal's satellites. It lay dormant until the mid-1980s, when for a brief time the west third of the terminal was equipped for international arrivals and used for People Express transcontinental flights. Terminal C was finally completed and opened in June 1988.

Underutilized in the 1970s, Newark expanded dramatically in the 1980s. People Express struck a deal with the Port Authority to use the North Terminal as its air terminal and corporate office in 1981 and began operations at Newark that April. It grew quickly, increasing Newark's traffic through the 1980s. Virgin Atlantic began service between Newark and London in 1984, challenging JFK's status as New York's international gateway. Federal Express (now known as FedEx Express) opened its second hub at the airport in 1986. When People Express merged into Continental Airlines in 1987, operations (including corporate office operations) at the North Terminal were reduced and the building was demolished to make way for cargo facilities in the early 1997. This merger started the dominance of Continental Airlines, and later United Airlines, at Newark Airport.

On July 22, 1981, a railroad tank car carrying ethylene oxide caught fire at the Port Newark freight yard, causing the evacuation of a one-mile radius, which included the evacuation of the North Terminal building of Newark International Airport.

In late 1996, the airport's monorail system opened, connecting the three terminals, the overflow parking lots and garages, and the rental car facilities. A new International Arrivals Facility also opened in Terminal B that year. The monorail was expanded to the new Newark Airport train station on Amtrak's Northeast Corridor line in 2001 and was renamed AirTrain Newark.

21st century

In 2000, The Port Authority moved the historic Building 51 and renamed it to Building One. The building, which weighs more than , was hydraulically lifted, placed atop dollies and rolled about . It now is where the airport's administrative offices are.

After the hijacking and crash of United Airlines Flight 93 in the September 11 attacks in 2001 while en route from Newark to San Francisco, the airport's name was changed from Newark International Airport to Newark Liberty International Airport in 2002. This name was chosen over the initial proposal, Liberty International Airport at Newark, and pays tribute to the victims of the September 11 attacks and to the landmark Statue of Liberty, lying east of the airport.

In October 2015, Singapore Airlines announced intentions to resume direct nonstop service between Newark and its main hub at Singapore Changi Airport, which had ended in November 2013. The airline announced t…