5.8 Million Travelers Served During Year-End Holiday Travel Period is Busiest Ever, Eclipsing Prior Record by Nearly 70,000 Passengers

LaGuardia Airport Jumps 4 Percent; Newark Liberty International Airport Jumps 2 Percent; John F. Kennedy International Airport’s Holiday Period is Flat

Throughout 2025, Port Authority Airports Also Set Records Across Multiple Major Travel Holidays, Including Thanksgiving, Memorial Day, Labor Day and Presidents Day

Extraordinary Demand Follows Unprecedented Transformations Across Port Authority Airports

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey today announced that its commercial airports served 5.8 million passengers over the year-end holiday travel period spanning Dec. 22, 2025, to Jan. 4, 2026, the highest total ever for the year-end holiday travel period. Holiday travel records were also set in 2025 during the Thanksgiving, Memorial Day, Labor Day and Presidents Day travel periods. The growth comes as the Port Authority continues unprecedented investment in its airports to deliver a world-class customer experience and match the region’s demand and expectations for air travel.

“These record-breaking holiday travel numbers are a powerful vote of confidence in the transformation of our region’s airports,” said Port Authority Chairman Kevin O’Toole. “Millions of travelers chose our airports during the busiest travel periods of the year, and they were served by facilities that reflect the scale, ambition, and importance of the New York–New Jersey region. What were once symbols of frustration have been rebuilt into gateways we can all be proud of: modern, welcoming, and worthy of this great region.”

“Moving nearly six million passengers through the holidays is the real-world test of our transformative work, and the numbers speak for themselves,” said Port Authority Executive Director Rick Cotton. “Our airports handled record demand because they’re better designed, better connected, and better run than ever before. As we deliver more world-class terminals, unmatched passenger amenities, and seamless transportation upgrades, passengers will benefit from airports that don’t just look world-class, they perform like it when it matters most.”

The 5.8 million airport passengers served during the year-end holiday travel period was an increase of about 69,000 passengers from the previous record high set the prior year. LaGuardia Airport’s 1.2 million passengers during the travel period was a 4 percent increase from the prior year. Newark Liberty International Airport served 2.06 million passengers, jumping 3 percent from the prior year. The surge was largely driven by domestic travel demand, which grew 5 percent over the prior year. At John F. Kennedy International Airport, its 2.48 million passenger total was level with the prior year.

Several passenger records were set across holiday travel periods throughout 2025, despite the backdrop of uncertainty and air travel disruptions that resulted from Federal Aviation Administration staffing issues in 2025 and the federal government shutdown from Oct. 1 to Nov. 12, 2025. Port Authority airports set new records during these holiday travel periods in 2025:

The 2025 Independence Day travel period of July 3-7 was the agency’s second-busiest ever, just 10,000 passengers below the record set in 2024.

The extraordinary demand follows a historic transformation of the Port Authority’s three major airports into award-winning, state-of-the-art gateways. Once defined by outdated facilities and chronic congestion, they now set a global standard for what modern airports can be, delivering best-in-class customer experiences through inspiring civic architecture, ambitious public art, distinctive local concessions, and cutting-edge technology. As part of its 2026-2035 Capital Plan, the Port Authority will continue building on that momentum, completing a shift that has already turned its airports from places travelers endured into destinations in their own right.

At John F. Kennedy International Airport, a multi-year effort is reshaping the airport into a world-class global gateway. The first gates at the $9.5 billion Terminal 1 and $4.2 billion Terminal 6 will open this year. Expansions at Terminal 4 and Terminal 8 have added gates, dozens of new concessions, and upgraded passenger amenities. These projects will be complemented by additional roadway improvements and a transformed AirTrain JFK featuring new, state-of-the-art train cars along with world-class stations. Additional improvements include a new restaurant at the central taxi hold lot that opened earlier this month to serve taxi drivers and early enabling work to replace aging infrastructure and accommodate future, demand-driven growth. More than $15 billion of the nearly $19 billion JFK redevelopment is privately financed.

At Newark Liberty International Airport, the stunning, airy, light-filled $2.7 billion Terminal A is in its third year of service and continuing to garner international acclaim, earning recognition from Skytrax as the best new airport terminal in the world in 2024. The Port Authority is advancing its redevelopment of Newark Liberty with construction now underway on a new $3.5 billion AirTrain Newark to improve reliability and capacity, alongside planning for a new world-class Terminal B through a public-private partnership. The airport’s five-star Terminal A is also set for future expansion with additional gates to support long-term growth. In 2026, construction will be completed on a new community access point to the Airport Train Station on Amtrak and NJ TRANSIT’s Northeast Corridor services, transforming airport and mass-transit access for historically underserved areas of Newark and Elizabeth in New Jersey. Additional projects include a third major taxiway to reduce flight delays and a new, simplified roadway network.

At LaGuardia Airport, a once-in-a-generation rebuild has turned the nation’s worst airport into its best. An $8 billion investment across two innovative public-private partnerships fully replaced the airport’s outdated facilities with the reimagined Terminal B and Terminal C, both of which are now open and have won a series of prestigious international awards. Building on that success, the Port Authority plans to renovate the 1980s-era gate and boarding areas at Terminal A to meet continued passenger growth, while preserving the entire original Marine Air Terminal, including its rotunda and observation decks, in consultation with community leaders and historians. The airport will also see major improvements to ground transportation, including a vastly enhancedfast, free, and frequent LGALink Q70 bus service with a new dedicated bus lane on the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway and a new on-airport bus stop, as well as completion of a new taxi hold lot at Terminal B with restrooms and prayer space for drivers.