Expansion of airport terminals at MacArthur, Westchester, and Stewart airports would accommodate discount flights to tourist destinations, alleviating congestion at LGA, JFK
Nassau County Executive and Republican gubernatorial candidate Bruce Blakeman has highlighted underused capacity at Long Island MacArthur Airport in Islip, Westchester County Airport, and New York Stewart International Airport near Newburgh as a practical way to expand low-cost service to popular leisure destinations while easing pressure on LaGuardia and John F. Kennedy airports. Terminal expansions and targeted investments at these facilities, he has suggested, could support additional discount flights—particularly to Florida and other tourist markets—without requiring the scale or connectivity of a traditional hub.
The approach builds on existing strengths across the three airports rather than starting from scratch. MacArthur, owned by the Town of Islip, already hosts Southwest Airlines as its largest carrier, along with JetBlue, Frontier, Breeze Airways, Avelo, and Cape Air. Service concentrates on high-demand leisure routes to Orlando, Tampa, West Palm Beach, Fort Myers, and Baltimore, with recent passenger volumes of roughly 1.2 to 1.6 million annually. The airport has added carriers and destinations in recent years, earned recognition as one of the nation’s best small airports, and offers convenient rail and highway access for residents across Long Island who prefer to avoid the drive into Queens.
Westchester County Airport handles around 2.3 million passengers and serves American, Delta, JetBlue, Breeze, and others. It functions as a convenient alternative for travelers in Westchester, northern New Jersey, and Fairfield County, Connecticut. County officials are already advancing terminal modernization focused on passenger amenities; further expansion could accommodate more low-fare leisure flying while preserving its role as a business-friendly field.
Stewart International Airport, operated by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey about 60 miles north of the city, brings complementary capacity with a long 11,800-foot runway capable of handling large aircraft and an existing international arrivals facility. Currently served primarily by Allegiant Air and Breeze Airways, it offers nonstop leisure service to Florida destinations such as Orlando (including Sanford), Punta Gorda, St. Pete-Clearwater, and Fort Lauderdale, along with Myrtle Beach, Charleston, and Raleigh-Durham. Passenger volumes remain modest—roughly 250,000–300,000 annually in recent years, well below earlier peaks—leaving substantial unused capacity. Regional leaders, including State Senator James Skoufis, have already begun exploring minimum revenue guarantees and other incentives with the Port Authority and Hudson Valley Economic Development Corporation to attract additional carriers and routes, including potential hub connections.
For many New York-area travelers heading to Florida or similar destinations, the primary airports’ congestion, longer security lines, and ground delays add time and cost that these secondary fields can avoid. Leisure traffic is particularly well-suited to the model: passengers often book in advance, prioritize direct lower-fare service, and benefit from shorter airport experiences. Southwest’s long-standing presence at MacArthur, Allegiant and Breeze’s Florida-focused operations at Stewart, and the existing leisure routes at all three fields demonstrate that such service can sustain volume when airports are positioned as convenient alternatives. Additional low-cost capacity could capture demand that currently funnels through LaGuardia or Kennedy simply because local options are limited.
Expanding terminals would give airlines the gate and facility space needed to add frequencies or new seasonal routes without the slot constraints that limit growth at LaGuardia. For Long Island, Westchester, and Hudson Valley residents, the result would be shorter travel times to the airport, lower fares on leisure trips, and less competition for limited capacity at the Port Authority’s core airports. Local economic benefits could include more jobs in airport operations, parking, concessions, and related services, along with improved accessibility for tourism-related spending. Stewart’s underutilized infrastructure and ongoing regional recruitment efforts make it an especially clear candidate for incremental leisure growth that simultaneously supports Hudson Valley economic development.
Airlines will ultimately decide where to place aircraft based on load factors, yields, and network fit. Yet the combination of existing leisure demand, available runway and terminal capacity, and distinct suburban and regional catchment areas gives MacArthur, Westchester, and Stewart a clearer path than many secondary fields. Targeted terminal investments, paired with competitive fees, marketing support, and tools such as revenue guarantees already under discussion at Stewart, could make incremental service additions attractive to carriers already operating in the region or seeking lower-cost ways to serve price-sensitive Florida and leisure traffic.
The approach would not replace the primary airports’ role in international, business, and connecting traffic. It would instead shift a portion of high-volume leisure flying to facilities better matched to that demand, reducing congestion where it is most acute while giving travelers across the broader New York region more practical options. Whether Blakeman’s suggestion advances depends on coordination among county and town officials, the Port Authority, the airlines, and state transportation authorities. The underlying opportunity—leveraging underused suburban and regional airports for discount leisure service—aligns with both traveler convenience and the operational realities of the New York market.
Expanded Capacity Could Open New Direct Routes to Florida, the Southeast, and Beyond
With additional terminal space and the ability to support more aircraft turns, MacArthur, Westchester, and Stewart could move beyond their current leisure networks and add nonstop service to a wider set of tourist destinations that low-cost carriers already serve profitably from other secondary markets. The most immediate opportunities lie in deepening Florida service and extending the same model to other high-demand leisure cities.
Florida would likely remain the core growth market.
Carriers such as Southwest, Allegiant, Breeze, Frontier, and JetBlue already concentrate capacity on Orlando, Tampa, and the southeast coast from these airports; expanded gates could support more frequencies to those cities as well as new or restored nonstops to secondary Florida airports that have proven successful elsewhere. Destinations such as Jacksonville, Daytona Beach, Sarasota, Fort Myers, and West Palm Beach could see additional seasonal or year-round options, giving Long Island, Westchester, and Hudson Valley travelers more choices without routing through LaGuardia or Kennedy. Allegiant’s existing pattern of pairing secondary New York airports with smaller Florida fields (Sanford, Punta Gorda, St. Pete-Clearwater) suggests that modest capacity gains could quickly translate into more of these point-to-point leisure flights.
Southeast beach and coastal cities offer a natural next step.
Myrtle Beach and Charleston already appear on Stewart’s schedule via Allegiant and Breeze; similar service could expand at MacArthur or Westchester, and new nonstops to Savannah, Wilmington, or Norfolk would fit the same leisure profile. These routes typically operate with lower frequencies than Florida markets but fill reliably during spring and summer peaks, when congestion at the primary airports is often highest. Low-cost carriers have repeatedly demonstrated that they can sustain such routes from airports with modest passenger bases when terminal and runway capacity is available and ground access is convenient for suburban residents.
Further afield, carriers could test or expand service to other classic leisure markets once local facilities can accommodate additional aircraft.
Southwest’s historical strength in Las Vegas, New Orleans, and Nashville, combined with JetBlue and Frontier’s broader leisure networks, points to potential nonstops or higher-frequency seasonal flying to those cities.
Caribbean and Mexico leisure destinations—Punta Cana, Cancun, Montego Bay, or San Juan—become more plausible at Stewart, which already has an international arrivals facility, and potentially at the other airports with customs support. Such routes would give suburban travelers direct access to popular warm-weather destinations while diverting some of the volume that currently concentrates at Kennedy.
The practical effect would be a broader menu of nonstop leisure options tailored to the catchment areas of each airport rather than a wholesale shift in the region’s air-service map.
Residents of Long Island could gain more Florida and Southeast choices without driving into Queens; Westchester and Fairfield County travelers could see additional leisure frequencies closer to home; and Hudson Valley passengers could benefit from the incremental growth already being pursued through revenue guarantees at Stewart.
Because most of these routes are point-to-point and leisure-oriented, they align with the operating models of the carriers already present and would not require the complex connecting banks of a traditional hub.
Realizing these additions would still depend on airline network decisions, load-factor performance, and continued coordination on fees and incentives. Yet the combination of demonstrated leisure demand, underused capacity at the three airports, and the established willingness of low-cost carriers to serve secondary fields indicates that terminal expansions could translate into a meaningful increase in direct tourist flights—precisely the kind of service that helps relieve pressure on LaGuardia and Kennedy while improving convenience for travelers across the broader New York region.
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