Travel to and from the region’s airports soared to new heights in 2024, with local airports recording their busiest year ever for a second year in a row as commercial air travel continues a steep rebound from the pandemic.
Roughly 146 million passengers flew through John F. Kennedy International, LaGuardia and Newark Liberty International, and New York Stewart International airports in 2024, according to new data from the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. The total number surpassed the previous record of 143.8 million travelers, set in 2023.
International travelers made up the bulk of the increase. More than 52 million passengers took to the skies through the region’s airports on international flights — a more than 5% increase year over year. Airlines offered slightly more international flight options to travelers, while decreasing their domestic offerings overall in 2024 compared to the previous year, Port Authority data shows.
But those flight numbers could have been higher were it not for a shortage of Federal Aviation Administration controllers. Throughout 2024, the FAA suffered a shortage of roughly 3,000 controllers nationwide, which required cuts to flight schedules in the Northeast. Aviation officials ordered a 10% schedule reduction during the summer for John F. Kennedy International, LaGuardia and Newark Liberty International, and more cuts in Washington, D.C. due to the shortage. Some flights had to be grounded in August due to the lack of controllers.
On Wednesday, tech billionaire Elon Musk said his Department of Government Efficiency will make “rapid safety upgrades” to the air traffic control systems with the FAA, without elaborating. It’s unclear what that would mean for the ranks of air traffic controllers.
The air-traffic controller shortage didn’t stop a record surge of travelers from taking to the skies during the Thanksgiving and year-end holiday travel periods. More than 3.4 million people traveled through the New York region’s airports during the typical Thanksgiving holiday stretch, and another 5.5 million passengers passed through during the Christmas, Hanukkah and New Year travel period — a 8% and 7% jump, respectively, according to Port Authority data.
On-time performance for departures at the region’s airports also ticked up overall, though there’s still runway for improvement. At JFK, LaGuardia and Newark airports, flights departed with between 78% and 80% on-time performance rates from January through October 2024 (the most recent statistics available from the federal Department of Transportation). For delayed flights, the average time hovered around an hour and twenty minutes at all three airports, DOT data shows.
Notably, aviation analytics firm Cirium ranked LaGuardia airport seventh in the world for on-time performance, with departures on schedule 82% of the time throughout 2024, according to a January Cirium’s report on airport and airline on-time performances.
