Newark Liberty International Airport – Airport Description
Newark Liberty International Airport (EWR) is one of the busiest airports in the US. The airport is located along the boundary between Elizabeth and Newark, New Jersey. Also, the airport is located around 24 km away from Midtown Manhattan, New York. EWR is a property of the city of Newark, although it is currently leased to the Port of New York and New Jersey that manages and operates it. EWR started its operations for the first time on O
ctober 1, 1928 as the first major international airport in the US. The airport was called Newark Metropolitan Airport until 1970s, when its name was changed to Newark International Airport. Initially, EWR had one terminal. The second terminal, the North Terminal, was opened in 1953 (Newark Liberty International Airport). Numerous improvements have been made on EWR since its establishment in order to accommodate the constantly increasing volumes of local and international flights. Also, the changes have helped to improve security and quality of aviation services.
Currently, EWR has one helipad and three runaways and it covers 2,027 acres of land. The airport has three terminals, A, B and C. Terminal A exclusively handles Canadian and domestic flights. Terminal B deals foreign flights only. Terminal C deals with both domestic and international flights (Newark Liberty International Airport). There is a free monorail system that connects the airport to different transit stations in New Jersey and New York, including Secaucus Junction and Newark Penn Station. Also, the monorail system connects the airport to rental facilities, parking garages and parking lots in New Jersey and New York (Newark Liberty International Airport). There are well-developed loads that connect the airport to different parts of New Jersey and New York. Among the companies whose vehicles operate along those roads are NJT buses, go bus 28, Olympia Trails and Southbound service.
EWR has numerous buildings in which air passengers are served. In addition to buildings preserved for ticketing and other operations of the airport, each terminal has restrooms and buildings reserved for restaurants and shops. Also, the airport has parking garages in each terminal. On February 04, 2014, the Port Authority unveiled a 10-year plan for a project that is meant to modernize EWR, together with LaGuardia and JFK airports, in order to enhance their capacity to accommodate the increasing volume of air flights, to improve aviation security and to enhance the services offered to the customers. The whole project is expected to cost $27.6 billion. Around $2.3bn is reserved for the development of Terminal A of EWR. The renovation of terminal B of EWR is expected to cost $347.1 billion (Newark Liberty International Airport). The two projects have not been started yet (Newark Liberty International Airport). The Ports Authority plans to use the other funds to support many other improvement projects within EWR over the next one decade.
Sources of Air Passengers
EWR sources air passengers from both the US and from foreign countries. In 2016, the airport served around 40 million passengers. The leading source of air passengers for the airport is San Francisco, California. Between August 2015 and July 2016, EWR served around 848,000 passengers who moved to and from San Francisco (Bureau of Transportation Statistics). The other busiest served by the airport during that period include Los Angeles in California (758,000 passengers), Orlandoin Florida (762,000 passengers), Chicago–O’Hare in Illinois (645,000 passengers), Atlanta Geogia (613,000 passengers), Charlotte in North Carolina (540,000 passengers) and Houston–Intercontinental in Texas (516,000 passengers). The major source of international flights for EWR is London (Heathrow), United Kingdom. Between August 2015 and June 2016, the airport served around 973,507 to and from London, specifically from Heathrow (Bureau of Transportation Statistics). The other busiest routes from and to the EWR include Tel Aviv in Israel (498,605 passengers), Toronto in Canada (Pearson) (425,351 passengers), Frankfurt in Germany (382,509 passengers) Hong Kong (352,819 passengers) and Paris in France (354,917) passengers. Also, the airport sources numerous customers from Amsterdam, Stockholm, Lisbon, Zurich, Munich, Brussels, Mumbai and Cancun. The largest airlines in terms of number of passengers that operated at EWR between August 2015 and June 2016 include United Airlines (26,656,024 passengers), American Airlines (2,621,383 passengers), JetBlue (1,635,895 passengers), Delta Airlines (1,844,118 passengers) and Southwest Airlines (1,343,987 passengers) (Bureau of Transportation Statistics). The Port Authority projects that the volume of air passengers will continue increasing in the future due to increase in the volume of business activities conducted across borders and between different regions. In the future, for instance, the Ports Authority projects that flights to and from the Middle East will continue to increase. The volume of passengers at EWR is projected to increase to at least 45 million passengers per year by 2025.
Impacts of the Increased Air Passenger Volumes on air Operations
The increase in the volume of air passenger operations has led to the emergence of major challenges that affect the operations of airlines and airports. Higher demand of the airline services than the available supply affects the ability of airlines and airports to offer quality services to customers in timely manner. Recently, for instance, queues at EWR are becoming too long to the extent that they make most passengers dissatisfied with the aviation services (Newman). In some cases, the customers are required to book for tickets many days before the time of departure. Today, queues for security checks at the airports are longer than ever before. Another issue is that the increasing volume of air passengers has contributed to congestion at the runaways of EWR and other airports. The increase in the demand for air transport services has influenced the existing airlines to purchase more aircrafts and to initiate operations in new routes. Consequently, the volume of flights into and from airports has also increased, leading to congestion in most airports (Newman). Over the next ten years, the volume of air passengers and flights is set to grow by a significant margin, as explained earlier. This implies that the challenges that are experienced by airlines and airport operators today are going to worsen in the future if not action is taken to establish a way of accommodating the increasing number of passengers.
Recommendations
The Ports authority of New Jersey and New York has noted the possible challenges that are likely to emerge in the future due to the increase in air passenger volume. Although there are plans to renovate EWR are other airports, there have been delays in initiating the improvements projects. In order to avoid facing serious challenges over the next 10 years, the Ports authority should initiate improvement projects for the terminals of EWR as soon as possible. The main focus of the improvement should be to add more effective facilities that will help to enhance the capacity of the airport to accommodate more passengers. If possible, the modifications should be done on all the three terminals of the airport.
Works Cited
- Bureau of Transportation Statistics. “Newark, NJ: Newark Liberty International (EWR).”U.S.
- Department of Transportation. February 2016. <https://www.transtats.bts.gov/airports.asp?pn=1&Airport=EWR&Airport_Name=Newark,%20NJ:%20Newark%20Liberty%20International&carrier=FACTS> Accessed 4 March 2017.
- Newark Liberty International Airport. Newark Liberty International Airport – Terminal A Redevelopment. 2016. <https://www.panynj.gov/airports/ewr-redevelopment/index.html> Accessed 4 March 2017.
- Newark Liberty International Airport. “History of Newark Liberty International Airport.” Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, 2017. < https://www.panynj.gov/airports/ewr-history.html> Accessed 4 March 2017.
- Newman, Richard. “Challenges for Newark airport’s runway king United.” NewJersey.com,
- February 24. 2013. <https://archive.northjersey.com/news/united-maintains-70-percent-marketshare-at-newark-despite-inroads-by-low-cost-carriers-for-newark-s-runway-king-1.557659?page=all> Accessed 4 March 2017.