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Stewart International Airport
4 reviews for Stewart International Airport
Stewart isn't a bad airport, and as others have noted, it's a viable alternative to the hell and headaches of JFK, LGA or (God forbid) Newark. The parking is ample and the airport isn't difficult to navigate. As you might have suspected, this isn't a huge airport - those used to riding the AirTrain around JFK might find this a welcome change.
Stewart is uncluttered and the gates are shockingly easy to find - in my opinion, it would be hard to get lost and miss your flight at this airport. Baggage claim is pretty okay - it's still an airport after all, there will be some glitches now and again - but it isn't the purgatory that it can be at larger airports, not by any stretch of the imagination.
For relative ease of navigation and the fact that you experience very little of the typical traveller harassment here, I give this place 4 stars. Stewart has always been amazing in that regard. But here are the negatives:
As you'd expect from a small airport, the shops and food choices are limited to the point of being nonexistent. This place doesn't come close to matching the duty-free heaven of bigger airports. But what can you do? If you want coffee and something to eat before your flight, you can find it here. Reading material? You can buy a newspaper, magazine or trashy novel at Stewart just as easily as you could at JFK or LGA. And you can do it without worrying that you'll have to sprint through two terminals in order to make your plane.
But most distressingly, there's very limited airline service out of this airport. And when I say very limited, I mean it. Despite the "International" in its name (I have no idea where that came from), you won't find Qantas Air making a landing here any time soon. Your carrier choices are restricted to Delta, JetBlue, Northwestern and US Air. JetBlue only goes to Florida, while the other three provide connecting service to locations across the country. Indeed, I've discovered that a lot of people in the area tend to fly out of Stewart if they are going to Florida on vacation. The rates are lower, and that's always an incentive.
Worthy of note: Stewart is run by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. I don't think that this was always the case, but it's interesting to know that this convenient little airport is under the jurisdiction of the same people who manage the city's airports.
This tiny airport is a viable alternative to the LGA and JFK for those who drive I estimate it'd be about an hour and a half from Manhattan, about an hour from Westchester (depending on where exactly you're coming from). The traffic to here is a different kind of traffic (light and slow-- as in stuck behind Grandpa on a 2 lane road until you get 10 yards to risk your life and pass-- as opposed to heavy and maniacal). It's really easy to pick people up at, but you obviously don't have the flight selection of a bigger airport.
International, though? That seems doubtful to me.
If you live in the greater Poughkeepsie area, Stewart International Airport appears to be a great alternative to flying out of Albany or JFK/LaGuardia. The airport is small, but there is ample parking and the long term "credit card only" lot is very reasonably priced.
The problem with Stewart is that the service is limited to a few carriers and depending on where you need to get to, your choices may be very limited. I recently flew out of Stewart on US Air and my experience with the airline was so terrible (extreme delays, poor customer service, and a graffiti filled airplane) that I would rather drive to Albany to take a Southwest flight for future travel. I'd certainly try Stewart again if the price and times were right, but only with a carrier other than US Air.
New York's fourth big airport? The "Stansted of New York"? (In reference to London's fourth airport). Plans are afoot to add flights to Europe. Really.