The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey reported that its commercial airports saw their third-busiest year in 2025, serving 142.7 million passengers. This figure is just behind the totals for 2024 and 2023. The agency also noted that December was the second-busiest December on record, with 12.2 million travelers passing through its airports.
The increase in passenger volume during the year-end holiday period helped set a new record for this travel window. Between December 22, 2025, and January 4, 2026, airports served 5.8 million passengers, about 69,000 more than the previous high set last year. Despite challenges such as Federal Aviation Administration staffing issues and a federal government shutdown from October to November 2025, overall airport activity remained strong.
John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK) and LaGuardia Airport (LGA) each recorded their second-busiest years ever in terms of passenger volume. JFK handled 62.6 million passengers—a slight decrease from its all-time high in 2024—while LGA served 32.8 million passengers, also just below its previous record. Newark Liberty International Airport (EWR) saw its third-busiest year with a total of 47 million passengers.
Holiday travel periods such as Thanksgiving, Memorial Day, Labor Day and Presidents Day all saw record-setting activity in 2025. The Port Authority attributed the rise to increased domestic travel despite adverse weather conditions during some holidays.
PATH commuter rail surpassed annual ridership of over 60 million for the first time since before the pandemic began, totaling 60.7 million passengers in 2025—an increase of more than six percent compared to the previous year. In December alone PATH achieved ridership levels at nearly four-fifths of pre-pandemic numbers from December 2019 and matched September’s recovery peak for monthly ridership relative to pre-pandemic figures.
Average weekday ridership on PATH in December reached nearly 188,000 riders—a more than three percent rise over last year—while annual averages climbed by over six percent from last year’s numbers. Weekend ridership exceeded pre-pandemic levels: Saturday averages were up by more than two percent and Sunday by over three percent compared to those seen in 2019.
At the seaport, the Port of New York and New Jersey moved almost six million loaded twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs), securing its position as the country’s second-busiest port for loaded containers—a nearly three percent increase from last year’s total.
For vehicular crossings including tunnels and bridges operated by the Port Authority, traffic remained robust with just over 121 million eastbound vehicles recorded throughout the year—almost matching both last year’s figures (adjusted for leap day) and those seen before the pandemic began.
The Port Authority funds its operations mainly through its own revenues and credit rather than state or local tax dollars (source). Its work supports regional economic vitality through ongoing investments in transportation infrastructure across an approximately 1,500-square-mile district spanning parts of New York and New Jersey (source). Facilities under its management include key assets such as John F. Kennedy International Airport, Newark Liberty International Airport, LaGuardia Airport and PATH rail system (source).
By overseeing airports, bridges, tunnels, port facilities and rail lines throughout this bistate region (source), the agency aims to facilitate efficient movement of people and goods while providing modern infrastructure that helps drive economic development (source).
