In the 1920s,
Newark, New Jersey, was the site of two airfields: Heller Field, which opened in 1919, and
Hadley Field, which opened in 1924, that were used by the
United States airmail service. In May 1921, Heller Field was closed and all air mail services moved to Hadley Field, which by 1927 also served four airlines. The
U.S. Postal Service, however, desired to have an airfield closer to New York City. In 1927, people and organizations, both national and local in scope, began calling for a new airport in the area of Newark, including Newark's mayor,
Thomas Raymond. On August 3, 1927, Raymond ordered plans for a new airport. Construction, which was estimated to cost $6 million (), The first lease for space at Newark Airport was signed by
Canadian Colonial Airways in April 1928. at Newark Airport in April 1939 The nation's first air traffic control tower and airport weather station opened at Newark in 1930. was built in 1934 and dedicated by
Amelia Earhart in 1935 and was the first passenger terminal in the United States. It served as the terminal until the opening of the North Terminal in 1953. Newark became the first airport to allow nighttime operations after installing runway lights in 1952. Despite these innovations, critics said the airport was poorly designed because there was no separation of incoming and outbound passengers and no thought given to future expansion, though this did not stop Newark from being the busiest commercial airport.
United Airlines,
American Airlines,
Eastern Airlines, and
TWA signed 10-year leases with the airport that ended in 1938. Then they would pay on a month-to-month basis until
LaGuardia Airport opened in December 1939; by the middle of 1940, all passenger airlines had left Newark, no longer making it the world's busiest airport.
World War II When the United States joined
World War II in late 1941, the field was closed to commercial aviation, and it was taken over by the
United States Army for logistics operations. The growing importance of supplying the overseas air forces and the need for more efficient control of supply shipments led to the activation of the Atlantic (and the Pacific) Overseas Air Service Commands on 1 October 1943. With headquarters at Newark, New Jersey (and Oakland, California for the Pacific Command), the
Atlantic Overseas Air Service Command exercised control over the movement of Air Corps cargo through the ports of embarkation on the Atlantic and Gulf coasts. In 1945, captured German aircraft brought from Europe on
HMS Reaper for evaluation under
Operation Lusty were off-loaded at Newark, and then flown or shipped to
Freeman Field in
Indiana, or
Naval Air Station Patuxent River in
Maryland.
Reopened The airlines returned to Newark in February 1946, when it was reopened to commercial service. In 1948, the city of Newark leased the airport to the Port of New York Authority, now the
Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. As part of the lease agreement, Port Authority took operational control of the airport and began investing heavily in capital improvements, including new hangars, a new terminal, and runway 4/22. On December 16, 1951, a Miami Airlines C-46 bound for
Tampa,
lost a cylinder on takeoff from runway 28 and crashed in Elizabeth, killing 56. On January 22, 1952, an American Airlines
CV-240 crashed in Elizabeth while on approach to Runway 6, killing all 23 aboard and seven on the ground. On February 11, 1952, a
National DC-6 crashed in
Elizabeth following takeoff from runway 24, killing 29 of 63 on board and four on the ground. Much of Newark Airport's traffic shifted to Idlewild, today known as
John F. Kennedy International Airport, after Newark was temporarily closed in February 1952; flights were shifted to
LaGuardia Airport and Idlewild, which allowed for planes to takeoff and land over the water rather than over the densely populated areas surrounding Newark Airport. The airport remained closed in Newark until November 1952, with the introduction of new flight patterns that directed planes away from Elizabeth. The continued unpopularity and the
New York area's growing air traffic led to searches for new airport sites. Port Authority's proposal to build a new airport at what is now the
Great Swamp National Wildlife Refuge was defeated by local opposition. Through the early 1970s, Newark had a single terminal building located on the north side of the field by what is now
Interstate 78. A new control tower opened in 1960, and the terminal was expanded from 26 to 32 gates in 1965. A $200 million expansion of the airport, which was to include three terminals, began in 1967 after three years of planning. In 1973, the airport was renamed Newark International Airport. Former Terminal A and present Terminal B opened in 1973, although some charter and international flights requiring customs clearance remained at the North Terminal. The main building of Terminal C was completed at the same time, but only metal framing work was completed for the terminal's satellites. It would lay dormant until the mid-1980s, when, for a brief time, the western third of the terminal was readied for international arrivals and used for
People Express transcontinental flights. Terminal C was then completed, and opened in June 1988. Underutilized in the 1970s, Newark expanded dramatically in the 1980s. People Express struck a deal with the Port Authority to use the North Terminal as its air terminal and corporate office in 1981 and began operations at Newark that April. It grew quickly, increasing Newark's traffic through the 1980s.
Virgin Atlantic began service between Newark and London in 1984, challenging JFK's status as New York's international gateway. Federal Express (now known as
FedEx Express) opened its second hub at the airport in 1986. When People Express merged into
Continental Airlines in 1987, operations (including corporate office operations) at the North Terminal were reduced, and the building was demolished to make way for cargo facilities in early 1997. This merger started the dominance of Continental Airlines, and later United Airlines, at Newark Airport. On July 22, 1981, a railroad tank car carrying
ethylene oxide caught fire at the freight yard in
Port Newark, causing the evacuation of a one-mile radius including an evacuation of the North Terminal building of the airport. In late 1996, the airport's monorail system opened, connecting the three terminals, the overflow parking lots and garages, and the rental car facilities. A new International Arrivals Facility also opened in Terminal B that year.
21st century In 2000, the Port Authority moved the historic Building 51 and renamed it to Building One. The building, which weighs more than , was hydraulically lifted, placed atop dollies and rolled about . It is now where the airport's administrative offices are located.
September 11 attacks terrorists boarded
United Airlines Flight 93 during the
September 11 attacks. Although the gate had been demolished as of 2022, the jetway for Gate A17 was preserved.
(pictured in 2006)|left After the hijacking and subsequent crash of
United Airlines Flight 93 during the 2001
September 11 attacks, the airport's name was changed from Newark International Airport to Newark Liberty International Airport in 2002. This name was chosen over the initial proposal, Liberty International Airport at Newark, and pays tribute to the victims of the September 11 attacks and to the landmark
Statue of Liberty, lying east of the airport. On September 10, 2021, a new 9/11 memorial was dedicated at the historic former administration building,
Building One. It features a steel base plate with a small piece of an exterior column from southwest corner of the South Tower of the former
World Trade Center. In 2025, the Port Authority donated the "Gate A17" sign from the previous Terminal A where Flight 93 departed from to the
Flight 93 National Memorial in
Shanksville, Pennsylvania.
International traffic expansion planes serving the airport in October 2016|thumb|250px In October 2015,
Singapore Airlines announced intentions to resume direct nonstop service between Newark and its main hub at
Changi Airport, which had ended in November 2013. The airline announced that service would resume some time in 2018, and the
Airbus A350-900ULR was chosen as the aircraft for the route. On May 30, 2018, Singapore Airlines officially announced that nonstop service between Newark and Singapore would begin on October 11, 2018, and Newark Liberty once again became host to what was then
the world's longest non-stop flight.
Continental Airlines (now merged with
United Airlines as of 2010) began flying from Newark to
Hong Kong on March 1, 2001, followed by
Beijing–Capital on June 15, 2005, and to
Delhi on November 1, 2005, all using a
Boeing 777-200ER aircraft. The airline soon started flights to
Mumbai. On July 16, 2007, Continental announced it would seek government approval for nonstop flights between Newark and
Shanghai–Pudong, which began on March 25, 2009, also using a
Boeing 777-200ER aircraft. Newark was the only airport in the
New York City Metropolitan Area used by
Philippine Airlines (PAL), until financial problems in the late 1990s compelled the airline to terminate this service. In June 2008, flight caps were put in place to restrict the number of flights to 81 per hour. The flight caps, in effect until 2009, were intended to be a short-term solution to Newark's congestion. After the cap expired, the FAA embarked on a seven-year-long project to reduce congestion in all three New York area airports, as well as the surrounding flight paths. Newark is a major hub for United Airlines (Continental Airlines before the 2010 merger). United has its Global Gateway at Terminal C, having completed a major expansion project that included a new, third concourse, and a new
Federal Inspection Services facility. With its Newark hub since 2010 (inherited from Continental in the merger), United has the most service of any airline in the New York area. On March 6, 2014, United opened a new , $25 million hangar on a parcel to accommodate their
wide-body aircraft during maintenance. In June 2015, the airline announced plans to leave JFK altogether and streamline its transcontinental operations at Newark. On July 7, 2016, the
United States Department of Transportation announced that Newark was one of ten cities to first operate flights to
José Martí International Airport in
Havana, Cuba.
Southwest Airlines began service at the airport in 2011, flying to ten cities. It ended all Newark service in November 2019, primarily due to the
Boeing 737 MAX groundings, low demand, and inadequate facilities, and consolidated its New York area operations to Long Island and LaGuardia.
Redevelopment and growth In 2016, the Port Authority approved and announced a redevelopment plan to replace Terminal A, set to fully open in 2022. A $2.7 billion investment, the new terminal was expected to increase passenger flow and gate flexibility between airlines, and would also be accompanied by a replacement for the AirTrain Newark monorail system, scheduled for completion in 2024. The new Terminal A officially opened on December 8, 2022. The new Terminal A has 33 gates, increasing Newark's gate total to 125, including 16 gates that can be alternated to accommodate either 2 narrow-body aircraft or 1 wide-body aircraft. As a result of the
COVID-19 pandemic in the United States, which affected countless services across the New York City area, aircraft operations at Newark went through drastic changes, with only 15,892,892 passengers in 2020, despite having 46,336,452 the previous years, the most in its history.
Alaska Airlines trimmed its Newark schedule to three daily flights and leased their gates (A30 and A31) to
JetBlue to accommodate their increased operations. In June 2022, United Airlines announced they would cut about 50 domestic flights from Newark in an effort to reduce delays. On January 11, 2023, the
FAA system outage across the United States caused 103 flights from Newark to be
grounded, the third highest in the country. In October 2022, the
Port Authority of New York and New Jersey (PANYNJ) announced their EWR Vision, which will cover short- and long-term development through 2065. Officials named
Arup, a global top aviation planning and design firm, to partner with
SOM, who has done several projects with the Port Authority and EWR prior. but later pushed to 2029. Goals for the project include creating a World Class Gateway for New Jersey, creating long-term economic growth, and creating a phase-by-phase plan that will not affect the airport's operations, while simultaneously expanding it to accommodate passenger and cargo growth in that time. In October 2024, after extensive outreach to airport stakeholders, local community leaders and the public, PANYNJ unveiled the findings of the EWR Vision. Major elements of the EWR Vision Plan include: •
Terminal development: The plan calls for building a new, world-class international terminal to replace the current Terminal B, while enhancing Terminal C to improve the customer experience. Both would complement the airport's award-winning new Terminal A that opened in January 2023, which could also see further expansion. The spacious, streamlined terminals would allow the airport to accommodate continued growth in passenger volume, while leaving space for further expansion as needed. •
Airside development: The plan envisions improving the airport's operations with a more efficient and resilient taxiway network, while accommodating the industry trend toward larger aircraft. The new network would increase parking capacity and flexibility for aircraft, while creating redundancies to minimize delays during irregular operations. It incorporates additional deicing facilities, allowing aircraft to push off from gates more quickly. It would also include the industry's latest safety standards, increasing straight taxiway segments and minimizing the need for crossings. •
Landside development: The blueprint looks to transform the airport's vehicular and multi-modal access, prioritizing efficiency and convenience for all users. Alongside terminal buildings, frontages would be expanded to meet industry standards, providing ample space for passenger waiting, loading and unloading while minimizing walking distances. AirTrain access would be simplified, while connectivity and amenities for cyclists, pedestrians, and service vehicles would be improved. The roadway network would also be streamlined to reduce decision points and separate major flows with independent circulation for each terminal. Newark serves 50 carriers and is the fourth-largest hub for
United Airlines after
Denver International,
Chicago O'Hare and
Houston George Bush Intercontinental. During a 12-month period ending in March 2022, over 63% of all passengers at the airport were carried by United Airlines. The second-busiest airline is
JetBlue Airways, which carries 11.4%, followed by
American Airlines, which carries 5.6%. The second largest tenant is FedEx, which operates in 3 buildings on around two million square feet of the airport's property. ==Facilities==