The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey has reported that its commercial airports ended the summer travel season with record numbers, particularly around the Labor Day holiday. From January to August, passenger volumes at the airports exceeded those of the same period in 2023, which was previously the busiest year for the region’s airports.
In August alone, approximately 13.4 million passengers traveled through these airports, marking a slight decrease of 1 percent from August 2023 due to severe weather disruptions. However, international travel saw an increase with 5.3 million passengers in August, up by 3 percent from last year.
The Labor Day period from August 29 to September 3 set a new record with about 2.5 million passengers traveling through the commercial airports, representing a 4 percent increase over the previous year's record.
At the Port of New York and New Jersey, cargo activity remained strong with a total of 790,891 TEUs (twenty-foot equivalent units) handled in August. This marked a significant rise of 19 percent from August 2023 and continued a six-month streak of surpassing 700,000 TEUs each month. Over the first eight months of this year, the port managed nearly six million TEUs.
Vehicular crossings also showed robust performance. Approximately 10.7 million eastbound vehicles used Port Authority bridges and tunnels in August, consistent with last year's figures and only slightly lower than pre-pandemic levels from August 2019.
The PATH commuter rail system experienced steady growth as well. In August, PATH ridership reached about two-thirds of pre-pandemic levels from August 2019 with total ridership at approximately 4.7 million passengers for the month—a five percent increase from last year.
Overall vehicle crossings for January through August were around 81.1 million eastbound vehicles—maintaining strong performance seen in both previous years' metrics for similar periods.
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