Traveling to a big city and the state next door is about to become a lot easier.
For a long time, if you lived in the New York area, or even sort of in the area, you could make a joke about how dingy and chaotic LaGuardia Airport was and rest assured that people would nod and know what you meant.
LaGuardia was famous for its leaky ceilings, cramped waiting areas and rodents running all over the place. But people who needed a flight just had to suck it up, as there are limited options and the conventional thinking was that that was just the way it was, and no one wanted to invest more money into making it better.
But then things changed, as the Port Authority received an $8 billion dollar upgrade to become what the New York Times notes is a “world-class” airport. Part of the reason for the improvement was that major construction work was able to happen during the pandemic when travel had died down.
While the state of air travel isn’t so great these days, many airlines have used the occasion of the pandemic to respond to the growing increase in traveling, as well the $2.89 billion in government support provided to U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Aviation Administration by the 2021 Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, to make some long overdue changes.
Salt Lake City International Airport and O’Hare International Airport have both made major renovations of late, and Orlando International Airport recently launched its Terminal C, with increased the airport’s capacity by 25%, or roughly 10-12 million additional passengers each year.
And now another major airport has announced a new terminal, and people who want to visit New Jersey, or at least pass through New Jersey on their way to New York, will be pleased.
Introducing Terminal A
This week, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey and New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy did a ribbon-cutting on the new Terminal A at Newark Airport.
“Folks will find something that is not only modern, high-tech, open, transparent, plenty of light, easy to maneuver, but it’s Jersey,” Gov. Phil Murphy said on a tour of the facility Tuesday morning, as reported by North Jersey.com.
The $2.7 billion terminal will be open to the public on December 8 with 21 of the terminal’s 33 gates; the remaining 12 will open in 2023.
United Airlines (UAL) – Get Free Report, JetBlue (JBLU) – Get Free Report, Air Canada (ACDVF) and American Airlines (AAL) – Get Free Report will be the first airlines to fly out of Terminal C, with Delta set to follow next year. Terminal C will be United’s main terminal, but some domestic flights will continue to go out of Terminal A.
Terminal C will feature 1 million square feet of space and what is being touted as state of the art check-in, security and baggage-claim areas, including Xovis sensor technology that is said to increase efficiency and reduce wait times, as well as increased solar panels and energy-efficient indoor lighting and controls.
It will be able to service 13 million passengers annually, and will have nearly double the number of gates of the old one, as well as 60 kiosks, which will be able to be used by flyers from any airline to check in and take care of baggage labels.
The revamp is being called long overdue for Terminal A, which opened in 1973 and was generally seen by travelers as, if not quite as bad as LaGuardia, then not that much better either. The revamp began in 2018 and continued through the pandemic, as part of the Port Authority’s efforts to revamp all three of its airports. A revamp on Terminal B is also ongoing.
“You told us you don’t like the experience at our airport, you may not have gotten a response back to your comments initially, but trust me, we heard it, and many of us took it personally,” said Huntley Lawrence, a 27-year resident of New Jersey who is the chief operating officer of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.
Port Authority of New York and New Jersey
Terminal C Celebrates New Jersey
New Jersey might always exist in the cultural shadow of New York, and residents still have to endure jokes about the TV show “Jersey Shore.”
But the great state of New Jersey gave the world Frank Sinatra, Yo La Tengo and Bruce Springsteen, has a vibrant food scene and more than enough parks to earn the Garden State nickname. There’s a lot to celebrate.
As soon as passengers arrive at Terminal C, they’ll get the full Jersey experience, as work showcasing local artists is located throughout the terminals. The bathrooms will have a New Jersey landscapes theme, such woodlands, the coastal shores and metropolitan chic, notes Travel Weekly.
The Terminal will also include six concession spaces of local businesses that will pay homage to the birthplace of the steel containers, including visible cranes from the terminal’s floor-to-ceiling windows.
Port Authority Executive Director Rick Cotton said, “We have worked hard to create a truly New Jersey sense of place.”
