Editorial

Stewart loses another carrier

Posted 8/21/19

Another setback for travelers out of New York Stewart International Airport was experienced last week, when Norwegian Airlines announced that it was suspending the remainder of its service out of …

This item is available in full to subscribers.

Please log in to continue

Log in
Editorial

Stewart loses another carrier

Posted

Another setback for travelers out of New York Stewart International Airport was experienced last week, when Norwegian Airlines announced that it was suspending the remainder of its service out of Newburgh and Providence, RI in September.

The airline will cut all trans-Atlantic routes that previously flew the Boeing 737 MAX aircraft. That means the flights from Stewart to Dublin, Ireland, will be discontinued. The airline previously ended flights from Stewart to Canada as well as Cork and Shannon, Ireland and Edinburgh, Scotland.

The 737 MAX was grounded globally in March in response to two crashes of the aircraft, operated by other airlines, that left 346 passengers and crew dead. Norwegian had substituted the 737 MAX for other aircraft on the Dublin and Canada routes from Stewart, but will no longer be doing so.

It’s a huge loss. The international service that began in 2017 was well received. In 2018, a record number of passengers (approximately 250,000) passed through the terminal. Losing Norwegian leaves only domestic service in and out of Stewart. It offers routes to Detroit, Fort Lauderdale, Myrtle Beach, Philadelphia, Punta Gorda, Orlando, and St. Pete-Clearwater. The remaining airlines that serve Stewart are Delta, American Airlines, JetBlue and Allegiant.

While it has no international service, it does have plans for an international terminal designed to ease the way through customs. The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey awarded a contract earlier this year to build a $37 million facility. That’s good news for the local construction industry, but what happens after the facility is built if no new international service comes to town? That’s a little like building a sports stadium in a city that doesn’t have a team. (That tactic worked in St. Petersburgh, Fla., where it probably shouldn’t have. The Tampa Bay Rays, created several years after the stadium was built, are perennially last in attendance).

At this writing, the future of that terminal is unclear. If Stewart can somehow attract more international service by offering some relief to some congested Metropolitan airports, it won’t matter. But if that doesn’t happen, we’ve got a problem We really cannot afford to build a terminal that gathers dust.