New York Stewart International Airport (SWF)

IATA Code: swf
ICAO Code: KSWF
The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey
1180 1st Street

New Windsor, New York 112553 United States
https://www.swfny.com/
Tel: (845) 838-8200

New York Stewart International Airport is a joint public and military airport situated in Orange County, New York, approximately 60 miles north of Manhattan. Currently operated by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey (PANYNJ), the facility serves the Hudson Valley and acts as a lower-congestion regional alternative to New York City’s primary metropolitan hubs.

The airport traces its history to 1930, when local dairy farmer descendant Archie Stewart convinced his family to donate land to the city of Newburgh. The property was subsequently sold to the U.S. Military Academy at West Point to train flight cadets, earning it the nickname “Wings of West Point.” It expanded into Stewart Air Force Base during World War II and went on to host critical military installations. Notably, on January 25, 1981, the 52 American hostages freed from Iran touched down at Stewart upon their return to the United States. Today, the airfield maintains an active military presence through the 105th Airlift Wing of the New York Air National Guard.

Stewart made history in 2000 as the first U.S. commercial airport to be privatized when the United Kingdom-based National Express Group acquired a 99-year lease. The Port Authority bought out the remaining 93 years of that lease in 2007 and later rebranded the site as New York Stewart International Airport to emphasize its location relative to New York City. The airport features an 11,817-foot main runway—notable for having been an official emergency landing site for the NASA Space Shuttle—and an expanded international passenger terminal designed to accommodate growing regional and budget air carrier traffic.