On an early Friday evening in July, the kind of lingering summer sunshine that commands adventure is pouring through Stewart International Airport’s oversize windows. The airport’s abuzz with dozens of area travelers readying to answer that call aboard the awaiting Reykjavik-bound flight, where some will continue on from the Icelandic capital to connections further afield in Europe. But as final boarding is called on Flight OG122, not all of them realize that before summer’s end, it will be the final boarding call indeed for Play Airlines’ flights out of Stewart.
The Icelandic budget carrier—Stewart’s sole international airline—announced last month that just three years after launching its Hudson Valley service, it’s ending all US airport operations. Its last available flight out of Stewart is scheduled for September 1. Play is just the latest in a string of international and domestic carriers to cut ties with the struggling airport, leaving Stewart with only a smattering of US connections, and putting the airport’s “international” label into serious doubt.
The airline’s departure is expected to cut into already lagging airport traffic. Following a peak of over 900,000 passengers in 2007 and $220 million in investments since then, the airport received just 277,000 passengers last year, according to data from the airport’s operator, Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.
For Hudson Valley-area residents with a taste for travel, Play’s parting is most unwelcome news, and questions abound as to why airlines keep failing there, and about what comes next for the beleaguered airport.
New Hamburg resident Eric Planey longs for the days when he’d fly out of Stewart, just a 30-minute drive from his home. That was before airline services at the airport began drying up and he was forced to fly out of less-convenient New York City airports.
“Small airports are great,” Planey says, of the single-terminal Stewart. “It’s easy to drive or Uber to, lines are short, and it has a great Hudson Valley feel about it.”
Indeed, most travelers seem satisfied with Stewart. What Play Airlines approvingly dubbed “the smallest version of an international airport” on its website, has been generally lauded by travelers like Planey for its hassle-free appeal. They praise the lack of congestion, breezy security lines, and streamlined customs experience, not to mention the minimal delays, affordable parking, and lower international fares compared to New York City-area airports.
Planey’s not alone in his frustration around Stewart’s dwindling flight offerings. More than a thousand people signed a recent Change.org petition he created to demand more flights at the airport, particularly when considering the onslaught of flight delays and cancellations, staffing shortages and other operational challenges that have plagued Newark Airport this year.
Why Airlines Keep Ditching Stewart
Play’s departure marks the third time an international carrier has bailed on Stewart since the airport debuted its first transatlantic airline, Norwegian Air Shuttle, in 2017. The budget Norwegian carrier, which flew to several European cities, stopped operations there following a two-year stint, in 2019. The Faroe Islands’ national carrier, Atlantic Airways, which offered the nation’s first nonstop flights to the Faroe Islands, didn’t even last that long, ceasing operations in 2024 after just one year of service.
Domestic carriers haven’t fared much better. Commercial service began at Stewart in 1990, and by the late 2010s, it had attracted service by five domestic airlines. But American Airlines, Delta Air Lines, JetBlue Airways, and Frontier Airlines have all left over the last five years.
Come September, only two domestic airlines will remain: Allegiant Air and 2024 newcomer Breeze Airways, primarily offering connections to Florida destinations.
For most of the departing airlines, the decision to pull out was cited in response to both low demand and profitability. Several suspended operations during the pandemic’s onset and never returned. Play Airlines noted its exit as part of a larger restructuring plan for the carrier (a shareholder takeover bid followed “less successful” financial results in the US market).
Stewart’s plight is not unlike that of many other smaller regional airports across the US, which have likewise faced declines in service in recent years as commercial airlines have scaled back on regional routes in favor of larger and more profitable airports. Trending factors like airline consolidations and national pilot shortages have not helped matters.
While Other Airports Rebound, Stewart Stalls
But while other Hudson Valley-region airports Albany International Airport in Albany and Westchester County Airport in White Plains faced similar challenges, particularly around pandemic-induced service cutbacks, both have since rebounded. Last year, Westchester serviced 2.3 million passengers, up from 1.7 million in 2019, according to US Department of Transportation statistics. Albany serviced roughly three million passengers in 2024, nearly matching its pre-pandemic numbers from 2019. Meanwhile Stewart only reached 277,000 passengers in 2024, down from its 914,000 high in 2007—a 70 percent drop in volume.
Paul Quartararo, chairman of the Stewart Airport Commission, an airport advisory council, says that Stewart’s singular failure to thrive has ultimately come down to “neglect” by the Port Authority, which took over Stewart’s operations in 2007.
“There’s a real concern by the airport commission that the Port Authority is not making any effort at all to bring in new service,” Quartararo says. “The Port Authority is underutilizing the airport to the detriment of all the people in the Hudson Valley who want that service.”
Port Authority also operates New York City-area airports Newark, Kennedy, and LaGuardia, among other transportation holdings. Its funding comes from a mix of the agency’s operational revenues, including from tolls, fares, fees, and rents, as well as from bonds and federal grants.
Stewart’s service cuts have come despite a sizable $220 million investment into improvements by the Port Authority, including modernization of the airport’s runways and terminal. The upgrades also included a $37 million international arrivals and customs facility that debuted in 2020.
While Stewart primarily services travelers from the Hudson Valley region, airport planners hoped inbound passengers would flock to it as an alternative gateway to New York City, with aims of easing congestion. Newark, Kennedy, and LaGuardia together make up the most congested airspace in the country, according to the Port Authority.
When the Port Authority first took over Stewart, it estimated as many as seven million annual passengers could one-day frequent the airport. “They never really got even near that,” Quartararo says.
Instead, he says, the Hudson Valley-area travelers that should utilize Stewart are “being forced by the Port Authority to use the three major airports.”
Port Authority Aviation Director Sarah McKeon says in an emailed statement that despite being “disappointed” by the recent news of Play’s departure, the agency is “fully committed to growing air service at SWF [Stewart] and continues to actively engage with airline partners to pursue new opportunities and enhance regional connectivity.” The agency did not respond to requests to identify any specific partnerships that might be in the works or to discuss the challenges that have been faced in attracting new airlines to Stewart.
As for what the latest departure means for the airport’s long-term viability, Quartararo says that Play’s departure and dwindling passenger numbers will certainly have an impact on the airport-related economy in the region. Stewart employs about 1,100 people, and contributes roughly $643 million in economic activity to the region, according to Port Authority data for 2024.
Stewart’s Other Revenue Streams—and a Green Energy Gambit
Yet the airport’s business model isn’t entirely dependent on commercial airline services. Initially developed in the 1930s as military aviation base for the nearby US Military Academy at West Point, it still functions as a federally funded military airfield for the 105th Airlift Wing of the New York Air National Guard. Stewart also brings in revenue from helicopter and private jet charters, cargo operations, and aircraft maintenance and repair services. Last year, the Port Authority announced plans to build a $119 million airport hangar development for corporate aircraft and maintenance.
The airport commission, meanwhile, has put forth a proposal to state officials for Stewart to operate as a sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) facility, effectively developing it into what it called a modern “enerport,” or airport energy hub. The proposal argues that SAF, an alternative biofuel that the airline industry is heavily embracing to reduce the carbon impacts of flying, could be readily produced at Stewart, making the airline a “model for other airports seeking enerport status.”
But Quartararo says that if Stewart is going to succeed, the Port Authority has to push harder to attract new commercial airlines. “For its long-term viability, it needs service, and it needs not just flights to Florida or Myrtle Beach—it needs flights like it had before” he says.
During an airport commission meeting in May, Port Authority representative Arlene Riverso told commission members that the agency is offering airlines incentives to come to Stewart like airport fee waivers for two years, plus funding to help them market their flights. Riverso says that while the Port Authority can make the offers, the decision is ultimately up to the carriers.
For now, with no apparent takers, Hudson Valley travelers, particularly those bound for international destinations, will increasingly have to trek to Newark or New York City—or prepare to be left grounded.
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This situation has always seemed obvious. Since the unaccountable Port Authority has taken over- and arguably far before- the mission was not to use Stewart as a passenger airport but a commercial cargo one. (In spite of its namesake family donating the land for the airport to the City of Newburgh so that the city would be a complete modern city.) Redirecting cargo from the other NYC area airports would open up more space for expanding passenger service there. The recent overbuilding of warehouses and its location at the crossroads of the NYState Thruway system make that surreptitious plan come closer to fruition. The original intention was designating the lands west of the airport for warehouse development but was thwarted by community activists who succeeded in forcing the state to preserve it as state parkland. Of course “poor” Newburgh was part of the reason cargo was always the goal as concentrating the worst polluting planes and trucks in a valley would only affect those “poor” Newburghers/Beaconites. Sad that no journalist thus far has taken the history of the airport and its location into these short negative stories without any comprehensive or contextual analyses.
I remember the days I could travel anywhere in the world by way of using Stewart from my home in Orange County. Two hours to Chicago by AA and I the world was my oyster.
If and when I return to NY, Id rather go to Albany or White Plains before the Port Authorities other airports in Metro NY.
Part of the problem has been social media. Although I’ve used Stewart many times since the 1990s, as well as all of the other NY metro airports, Stewart seemed to attract mostly low-cost budget airlines. No problem, as long as you know what you’re getting. The comments I read on Facebook, instagram, et al, were from people with their hair on fire because they were expecting a first-class experience at budget prices. There was general consternation that they weren’t getting extra legroom, free meals, free baggage, and all the other “frees” they felt entitled to. Responses to those comments usually said, “thanks for the heads up; I will avoid using Play, Norwegian, Allegiant, etc for my travel plans.” And that’s the end of the business. People who travel once a year to Disney World shooting everyone, including themselves, in the foot.