Three major airports serve New York City: John F. Kennedy International Airport (tel. 718/244-4444) in Queens, about 15 miles (1 hr. driving time) from midtown Manhattan; LaGuardia Airport (tel. 718/533-3400), also in Queens, about 8 miles (30 min.) from Midtown; and Newark International Airport (tel. 973/961-6000) in nearby New Jersey, about 16 miles (45 min.) from Midtown. Information about all three airports is available online at www.panynj.gov; click on the "All Airports" tab on the left.
Even though LaGuardia is the closest airport to Manhattan, it has a bad reputation for delays and terminal chaos, in both ticket-desk lines and baggage claim. You may want to use JFK or Newark instead. (JFK has the best reputation for timeliness among New York-area airports.)
Almost every major domestic carrier serves at least one of the New York-area airports; most serve two or all three. Among them American (tel. 817/967-2000; www.aa.com), Continental (tel. 800/525-3273; www.continental.com), Delta (tel. 800/221-1212; www.delta.com), Northwest (tel. 800/225-2525; www.nwa.com), US Airways (tel. 800/428-4322; www.usairways.com), and United (tel. 800/864-8331; www.united.com).
In recent years, there has been rapid growth in the number of start-up, no-frills airlines serving New York. You might check out Atlanta-based AirTran (tel. 800/AIRTRAN; www.airtran.com), Chicago-based ATA (tel. 800/225-2995; www.ata.com), Denver-based Frontier (tel. 800/432-1359; www.flyfrontier.com), Milwaukee- and Omaha-based Midwest Airlines (tel. 800/452-2022; www.midwestairlines.com), or Detroit-based Spirit Airlines (tel. 800/772-7117; www.spiritair.com). The JFK-based cheap-chic airline jetBlue (tel. 800/JETBLUE; www.jetblue.com) has taken New York by storm with its low fares and classy service to cities throughout the nation. The nation's leading discount airline, Southwest (tel. 800/435-9792; www.iflyswa.com), flies into MacArthur (Islip) Airport on Long Island, 50 miles east of Manhattan.
Choosing Your NYC-Area Airport -- It's more convenient to fly into Newark than JFK if your destination is Manhattan, and fares to Newark are often cheaper than those to the other airports. Newark is particularly convenient if your hotel is in Midtown West or downtown. Taxi fare into Manhattan from Newark is roughly equivalent to the fare from JFK -- both now have AirTrains in place, but the AirTrain to Newark from Manhattan is quicker.
Immigration & Customs Clearance -- Foreign visitors arriving by air, no matter what the port of entry, should cultivate patience and resignation before setting foot on U.S. soil. U.S. airports have considerably beefed up security clearances in the years since the terrorist attacks of 9/11, and clearing Customs and Immigration can take as long as 2 hours.
People traveling by air from Canada, Bermuda, and certain Caribbean countries can sometimes clear Customs and Immigration at the point of departure, which is much faster.
