Newark Liberty International Airport (IATA: EWR, ICAO: KEWR, FAA LID: EWR) is an international airport in the U.S. state of New Jersey, serving the New York metropolitan area. The airport is located in both Newark and neighboring Elizabeth, straddling the boundary between Essex and Union counties. Owned by the two cities, it is leased to its operator, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. Located approximately 4.5 miles (7.2 km) south of downtown Newark and 9 miles (14 km) west-southwest of Manhattan, it is a major gateway to destinations in Europe, South America, the Caribbean and Asia. It is the second-busiest airport in the New York airport system behind John F. Kennedy International Airport and ahead of LaGuardia Airport.
The airport is near the Newark Airport Interchange, the junction between both Interstate 95 and Interstate 78 (both of which are components of the New Jersey Turnpike), and 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, which is served by NJ Transit's Northeast Corridor Line and North Jersey Coast Line and Amtrak's Northeast Regional and Keystone Service.
The City of Newark started building the airport in 1928 on 68 acres (28 ha) of marshland adjacent to Port Newark and U.S. Route 1. The Army Air Corps operated the facility during World War II. The Port Authority took over the facility in 1948, adding an instrument runway, a new terminal building, a new control tower, and an air cargo center. The airport's Building One from 1935 was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1980.
During 2022, the airport served 43.4 million passengers, which made it the 13th-busiest airport in the nation, and the 23rd-busiest airport in the world. The busiest year to date was 2023, when it served 49.1 million passengers. Newark Liberty International 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 covering approximately 2 million square feet (0.19 km2) of airport property.
History
In the 1920s, the Newark area, was the site of two airfields: Heller Field, which opened in 1919, and Hadley Field, which opened in 1924, that were used by the United States airmail service. Heller Field was the first official postal field for dedicated mail service in the United States.
In May 1921, Heller Field was closed and all air mail services moved to Hadley Field, which by 1927 also served four airlines. The U.S. 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, which was estimated to cost $6 million (equivalent to $111,206,897 in 2025), began on April 1, 1928, along US Route 1 and Port Newark. The construction involved a land reclamation project to create 68 acres (28 ha) of level ground, 6 feet (1.8 m) above sea level to prevent flooding, upon which a 1,600-foot (490 m) runway was to be laid. In addition to the 6,735,000 cubic yards (181,800,000 ft3; 5,149,000 m3) 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, dubbed the Newark Metropolitan Airport. It was the first major airport to serve the New York metropolitan area, the first commercial airport in the United States and the first with a paved airstrip. 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. The Art Deco style Newark Metropolitan Airport Administration Building (Building 51), adorned with murals by Arshile Gorky, was built in 1934 and dedicated by Amelia Earhart in 1935. It was the first passenger terminal in the United States and featured the nation's first air route traffic control center (ARTCC). 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 these innovations, 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 that ended in 1938. Then they would pay on a month-to-month basis until LaGuardia Airport opened in December 1939; by the middle of 1940, all passenger airlines had left Newark, no longer making it the world's busiest airport.
World War II
When the United States joined World War II in late 1941, the field was closed to commercial aviation, and it was taken over by the United States Army for logistics operations. The growing importance of supplying the overseas air forces and the need for more efficient control of supply shipments led to the activation of the Atlantic (and the Pacific) Overseas Air Service Commands on October 1, 1943. With headquarters at Newark, New Jersey (and Oakland, California for the Pacific Command), the Atlantic Overseas Air Service Command exercised control over the movement of Air Corps cargo through the ports of embarkation on the Atlantic and Gulf coasts.
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.
Reopened
The airlines returned to Newark in February 1946, when it was reopened to commercial service. 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 lease agreement, 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 following takeoff from runway 24, killing 29 of 63 on board and four on the ground.
Following these accidents, Newark was temporarily closed in February 1952. Most of Newark Airport's traffic shifted to Idlewild, today known as John F. Kennedy International Airport, with the remaining traffic shifted to LaGuardia Airport. These moves allowed planes to takeoff and land over the water rather than over the densely populated areas surrounding Newark Airport. Newark remained closed until November 1952, with the introduction of new flight patterns and a new runway that directed planes away from Elizabeth. Additionally, Newark became the first airport to allow nighttime operations after installing runway lights for added safety. The airport's unpopularity and the New York area's growing air traffic led to searches for new airport sites. Port Authority's proposal to build a new airport at what is now the Great Swamp National Wildlife Refuge was defeated by local opposition.
Rebuilt and expanded
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 was renamed 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 would lay dormant until the mid-1980s, when, for a brief time, the western third of the terminal was readied for international arrivals and used for People Express transcontinental flights. Terminal C was then completed, and opened in June 1988.
Underutilized in the 1970s, Newark's traffic 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 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 freight yard in Port Newark, causing the evacuation of a one-mile radius including an evacuation of the North Terminal building of the 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 same 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, following a runway extension, the Port Authority moved the historic Building 51 and renamed it to Building One. The building, which weighs more than 7,000 short tons (6,200 long tons; 6,400 t), was separated into three sections, hydraulically lifted, placed atop dollies and rolled about 0.75 miles (1.21 km) to its current location. It is now the home of the airport's administrative offices. In 2004, the current 325 feet tall (99 m) control tower opened and the former tower was demolished.
September 11 attacks
After the hijacking and subsequent crash of United Airlines Flight 93 during the 2001 September 11 attacks, 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 7 miles (11 km) east of the airport.
On September 10, 2021, a new 9/11 memorial was dedicated at the historic former administration building, Building One. It features a steel base plate with a small piece of an exterior column from southwest corner of the South Tower of the former World Trade Center.
In 2025, the Port Authority donated the "Gate A17" sign from the previous Terminal A where Flight 93 departed from to the Flight 93 National Memorial in Shanksville, Pennsylvania.
International traffic expansion
Continental Airlines began flying from Newark to Hong Kong on March 1, 2001, followed by Beijing–Capital on June 15, 2005, and to Delhi on November 1, 2005, all using a Boeing 777-200ER aircraft. The airline soon started flights to Mumbai. On July 16, 2007, Continental announced it would seek government approval for nonstop flights between Newark and Shanghai–Pudong, which began on March 25, 2009, also using a Boeing 777-200ER aircraft. Newark was the only airport in the New York metropolitan area used by Philippine Airlines (PAL), until financial problems in the late 1990s compelled the airline to terminate this service.
In June 2008, flight caps were put in place to restrict the number of flights to 81 per hour. The flight caps, in effect until 2009, were intended to be a short-term solution to Newark's congestion. After the cap expired, the FAA embarked on a seven-year-long project to reduce congestion in all three New York area airports, as well as the surrounding flight paths.
Newark is a major hub for United Airlines (Continental Airlines before the 2010 merger). United has its Global Gateway at Terminal C, having completed a major expansion project in 2003 that included a new third concourse, a new ramp control tower and a new Federal Inspection Services facility. With its Newark hub since 2010 (inherited from Continental in the merger), United has the most service of any airline in the New York area. On March 6, 2014, United opened a new 132,000-square-foot (12,300 m2), $25 million hangar on a 3-acre (1.2 ha) parcel to accommodate their wide-body aircraft during maintenance. In June 2015, the airline announced plans to leave JFK altogether and streamline its transcontinental operations at Newark.
Southwest Airlines began service at the airport in 2011, flying to ten cities. It ended all Newark service in November 2019, primarily due to the Boeing 737 MAX groundings, low demand, and inadequate facilities, and consolidated its New York area operations to Long Island and LaGuardia.