Newark Airport Records Third-Busiest Year in 2025 With 47 Million Passengers

Newark Liberty International Airport processed 47 million passengers in 2025. That made it the third-busiest year the airport has ever seen. The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey announced Feb. 6 that only two years surpassed this total: 2023 with 49.08 million travelers and 2024 with 48.99 million, according to ROI-NJ.

All three Port Authority commercial airports together moved 142.7 million passengers last year. This ranked third on record, behind 2024's 146.1 million and 2023's 143.8 million.

Several disruptions hit operations throughout 2025. Technology glitches slowed things down. Staffing shortages created delays. One runway at Newark shut down for repairs. A 43-day federal government shutdown ran from Oct. 1 to Nov. 12, 2025, cutting into passenger counts.

The year-end holiday stretch from Dec. 22, 2025, to Jan. 4, 2026, shattered previous records across all Port Authority airports. These facilities handled 5.8 million passengers during those two weeks — about 69,000 more than the prior year's peak. Thanksgiving broke records. So did Memorial Day, Labor Day, and Presidents Day.

December 2025 became the second-busiest December the airport system has logged. The three locations welcomed 12.2 million passengers that month. Newark processed 4.23 million passengers in December 2025, missing its December 2024 record of 4.25 million by just 20,000.

PATH commuter rail topped 60 million passengers in a single year for the first time since 2019. The system carried 60.7 million riders in 2025, jumping 6.1% from 2024. That hit 74% of pre-pandemic 2019 totals, with December volumes reaching 79% of pre-pandemic figures.

The Port of New York and New Jersey ranked as the nation's second-busiest port for loaded containers in 2025. It handled 5,955,798 loaded TEUs — twenty-foot equivalent units — over the year. That's a 2.8% bump from 2024.

The agency's six vehicular crossings logged 121.5 million eastbound vehicles in 2025. This dropped 0.5% from 2024 when adjusted for the leap year's extra day. The total sat 0.6% below pre-pandemic 2019 numbers.