The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey has reported that its commercial airports served about 11.7 million passengers in September 2025, a decrease of 2.4 percent compared to September 2024. The agency attributed the decline mainly to more severe weather events and ongoing operational and staffing issues at Newark Liberty International Airport related to the Federal Aviation Administration.
Passenger traffic fell at all three major airports under the Port Authority’s control. Newark Liberty International Airport saw a 2.1 percent drop, John F. Kennedy International Airport declined by 3.4 percent, and LaGuardia Airport was down by 0.9 percent compared to the same month last year. Over the first nine months of 2025, total airport passenger volume reached approximately 107.1 million, representing a 2.2 percent decrease from the previous year.
PATH commuter rail experienced significant gains during September, marking its second-busiest month since February 2020 with a total of 5.5 million riders—a rise of 6.9 percent over September 2024. PATH reached a new post-pandemic milestone by achieving ridership equal to 79 percent of pre-pandemic levels from September 2019. Average weekday ridership for the month was also the highest since early 2020, with several single-day records set on September 9, 10, 16, and 17; the new record was established on September 9 when PATH counted 243,858 riders in one day.
From January through September this year, PATH carried approximately 41.9 million passengers—an increase of about 7.3 percent over the same period last year.
At the seaport, the Port of New York and New Jersey maintained its position as the nation’s second-busiest port for loaded containers (TEUs) both for September and for the first nine months of this year. In September alone, it handled nearly half a million loaded TEUs (484,586), although overall container volume was down by five percent compared to last year due to shippers moving holiday goods earlier in anticipation of changes in tariff policy.
Despite this monthly decline, total container throughput from January through September rose by about three percent over last year’s figures to reach nearly seven million TEUs (6,787,649).
Vehicular crossings via tunnels and bridges operated by the Port Authority remained steady with strong volumes similar to last year’s numbers: eastbound vehicle crossings totaled about 10.2 million for September—up slightly from a year ago—with truck traffic up nearly eight percent due in part to an additional weekday in this year’s calendar month.
For the first nine months of this year, approximately 90.8 million vehicles used Port Authority crossings—a marginal decrease after adjusting for last year’s leap day.
