Stewart International Airport

Stewart International Airport (IATA: SWF, ICAO: KSWF) is located in the southern Hudson Valley, west of Newburgh, New York and over 60 miles (97 km) north of Midtown Manhattan, New York City.The airport is located in the Town of Newburgh and the Town of New Windsor.

Originally developed in the 1930s as a military base to allow cadets at the nearby United States Military Academy at West Point to learn aviation, it has over the years grown into the major passenger airport for the mid-Hudson region and continues to serve as a military airfield as well, currently housing the 105th Airlift Wing of the New York Air National Guard and Marine Aerial Refueler Transport Squadron 452 (VMGR-452) of the United States Marine Corps Reserve. The space shuttle could also land at Stewart in an emergency.

It has made history in several ways. After its closure as an active Air Force base in the early 1970s, an ambitious plan by former Governor Nelson Rockefeller to greatly expand and develop the airport led to a bitter and protracted struggle with local landowners that led to reforms in the state's eminent domain laws but no actual development of the land acquired.

In 1981 the 52 American hostages held in Iran made their return to American soil at Stewart. In 2000, the airport became the first U.S. commercial airport privatized when United Kingdom-based National Express Group was awarded a 99-year lease on the airport. After postponing its plans to change the facility's name after considerable local opposition, it announced plans to sell its rights to the airport.

On January 25, 2007, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey board voted to acquire the remaining 93 years of the lease, effectively ending the privatization experiment. It took control of the airport on November 1 of that year.

One of the biggest impediments to the use of Stewart by more airlines and passengers has long been the difficulty of actually getting to it. The completion of the Drury Lane exit in 2007 and the accompanying access road to the airport, International Boulevard, are intended to remedy this.

In addition to road access, there have been plans over the years to possibly implement a light rail connection along Broadway in the city of Newburgh that could conceivably go out to Stewart from the ferry connection with the Metro-North passenger line across the Hudson River in Beacon; however that does not appear likely to happen any time soon. Currently, the only connection is via a shuttle bus.

In 2006, with construction of the Drury Lane exit underway, Senator Charles Schumer put his weight behind getting federal aid for another long-discussed access improvement: a rail link to the nearby Metro North Port Jervis Line, to give passengers an express train trip from the airport into the city or Newark Airport via Secaucus Junction. This would entail acquiring property and laying new tracks, to link to the existing line somewhere near the Salisbury Mills station. NEG had had success with the similar Gatwick Express and Midland Mainline rail-air connections in its native Britain. While the federal government has approved the idea, the money has not yet been appropriated.