Newark Liberty International Airport - History

History

Opened on October 1, 1928, Newark Airport was developed on 68 acres of reclaimed land along the Passaic River by the City of Newark as the first major airport servicing passengers in the New York City area. By mid-1940, however, the operations of the five major scheduled carriers servicing Newark by Spring, 1939 all relocated to La Guardia Airport in Queens, NY which opened on December 2, 1939 as the city's own municipal passenger airport. During World War II, the field closed to commercial aviation when it was taken over by the United States Army for logistics operations. In 1945, captured German aircraft brought from Europe on the HMS Reaper for evaluation under Operation Lusty were off-loaded at Newark AAF and then flown or shipped to Freeman Field, Indiana or Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Maryland.

The airlines returned in February 1946 and in 1948 the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey assumed control of the airport, later building new hangars, a new terminal and runway 4/22. The Art Deco Administration Building served as the terminal until the opening of the North Terminal in 1953, and was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1979. The Newark Metropolitan Airport Terminal was once adorned with murals by Arshile Gorky,

Three major crashes took place in Elizabeth, NJ involving flights departing from or arriving at Newark in less than two months in 1951-52. On December 16, 1951 a Miami Airlines Curtiss C-46F-1-CU Commando bound for Tampa, FL lost a cylinder on takeoff from runway 28 and crashed in Elizabeth killing 56, on January 22, 1952 an American Airlines Convair CV-240-0 arriving from Syracuse, NY crashed in Elizabeth while on approach to runway 6 killing all 23 passengers and crew as well as seven on the ground, and on February 11, 1952 a National DC-6 bound for Miami crashed in Elizabeth after takeoff from runway 24 killing 29 of 63 on board and four persons on the ground. Inevitably the airport was closed for some months; airline traffic resumed later in the year, but the airport's continued unpopularity and the New York area's growing air traffic led to searches for new airport sites. A proposal to build a new international airport at what is now the Great Swamp National Wildlife Refuge was defeated by local opposition.

The April 1957 Official Airline Guide showed 144 weekday passenger fixed-wing departures from Newark: 40 Eastern, 19 Capital, 16 American, 14 United, 14 Mohawk, 13 Allegheny, 11 TWA, 8 National, 5 Delta and 4 Braniff. National had a nonstop to Miami, Eastern had nonstops to Miami, New Orleans and Houston, Braniff had a nonstop DC-7C to Dallas and TWA flew nonstop to St Louis; no other nonstops to points west of Chicago, and no international nonstops. (Eastern started a nonstop to Montreal in 1958, probably Newark's first scheduled international nonstop since 1939, though Eastern had nonstops to San Juan in 1951.) Jet airliners arrived in 1961; in 1964 American and TWA started flying nonstop to California, though Newark's longest runway remained 7,000 ft (2,100 m) until 1970. TWA's 707 nonstop to Heathrow in 1978 was probably Newark's first intercontinental nonstop.

In the 1970s, the airport became Newark International Airport. Present Terminals A and B opened in 1973, although some charter and international flights requiring customs clearance remained at the North Terminal. The main building of Terminal C was completed at the same time, but only metal framing work was completed for the terminal's satellites, and it lay dormant until the mid-1980s, when for a brief time the west third of the terminal was equipped for international arrivals and used for certain People Express transcontinental flights. Terminal C was fully completed and opened to the public in June 1988.

Underutilized through the 1970s, Newark expanded dramatically in the 1980s. People Express struck a deal with the Port Authority to use the North Terminal as both its air terminal and corporate office in 1981 and began operations at Newark that year. It quickly became one of the largest American airlines, increasing Newark's traffic through most of the 1980s. Virgin Atlantic Airways began service between Newark and London in 1984, challenging JFK's status as New York's international gateway (but Virgin Atlantic now has more flights at JFK than at Newark). Federal Express (now known as FedEx Express) opened its second hub at the airport in 1986. When People Express merged into Continental in 1987 operations at the North Terminal were greatly reduced, and the building was demolished to make way for cargo facilities in the early 1990s.

Of the three New York Metropolitan Airports, only Newark Airport has served as a Philippine Airlines destination. Normally, JFK handles more international flights than Newark and, with O'Hare Airport, were the only destinations once served by the airline not on the west coast. Due to the Asian Financial crisis in 1997, Philippine Airlines terminated service to both Newark and O'Hare and only operates service to west coast cities in the United States.

Newark is a major hub for United Airlines (previously Continental Airlines before the 2010 merger). Today United has its Global Gateway at Terminal C, having completed a major expansion project that included the construction of a new, third concourse and a new Federal Inspection Services facility. With its Newark hub United is the largest provider of air service to the New York metropolitan area. In anticipation of Super Bowl XLVIII, United is building a new 132,000-square-foot, $25 million maintenance hangar on a 3-acre parcel to accommodate new wide-body Boeing Dreamliners.

United Airlines Flight 93 pushed back from gate A17 at 8:01 am, on its way from Newark to San Francisco International Airport, on September 11, 2001. Two hours later, it would crash into a field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, when passengers attempted to take over the plane from a team of hijackers. Based on the direction the plane was flying at the time and information gathered afterwards, most observers believe that the hijackers intended to crash the plane into a target in Washington, D.C., such as the Capitol or White House. To honor the victims that died on September 11, in 2002 the airport's name was changed from Newark International Airport to Newark Liberty International Airport. This name was chosen over the initial proposal, Liberty International Airport at Newark, and refers to the landmark Statue of Liberty, just 7 miles (11 km) east of the airport.

In 2001, Newark Liberty International Airport became the terminus of the world's longest non-stop scheduled roundtrip airline route, Singapore Airlines' service to Singapore; however, in October 2012 the airline announced that the non-stop service to Singapore would cease in 2013. Continental began flying from Newark to Beijing on June 15, 2005 and Delhi on November 1, 2005. When these services began, Continental became for a time the only airline to serve India nonstop from the United States, and the third U.S. carrier, after United and Northwest to serve mainland China nonstop and the first U.S. carrier to offer nonstop flights to Beijing from the New York City area. On July 16, 2007, Continental Airlines announced that it would seek government approval for nonstop flights between Newark and Shanghai in 2009. In September 2007, the United States Department of Transportation tentatively awarded Continental the right to fly to Shanghai from Newark beginning March 25, 2009 using Boeing 777-200ER aircraft.

Since June 2008, flight caps restricting the number of flights to 81 per hour have been in use. The flight caps, which were only in effect until 2009, are intended to be a short-term solution to Newark Airport's congestion problem.

In 2011, Continental and United combined had controlled 71% of the airport's passenger flight business. The next two busiest airlines, Delta Air Lines and JetBlue Airways, each had less than 5% of Newark Airport's passenger flight business.