After the original opening day in December had to be postponed, Newark Liberty Airport’s new $2.7 billion terminal A opened to travelers Thursday, replacing a cramped 50-year-old building to become the airport’s crown jewel.
Port Authority of New York and New Jersey representatives joined Elizabeth city officials, which is the physical home to the new terminal and part of Terminal B, in a traditional ceremony where an arriving United Airlines flight from West Palm Beach passed under an arch of water sprayed from two airport fire fighting water cannons as it approached one of the 21 gates constructed in Terminal A’s first phase.
Moving operating to the new terminal was a “huge, massive effort that started at midnight,” said Kevin O’Toole, chair of the Port Authority board of commissioners. Officials had to cope with an early morning blackout affecting only the Transportation Security Administration and two people who got through a TSA security checkpoint, who were apprehended and screened.
Passengers who were interviewed Thursday morning had two reactions, delight over arriving an a new spacious terminal with better restaurants, or indifference because of travel issues that they were focused on.
Two passengers who just arrived from Puerto Rico had a friend take their photo in front of the large yellow “NJ” letters that are a centerpiece of the terminal’s ground floor.
“It’s my first time here. It may be my first and last trip here,” Carolina Bambrana said after havng the photo talen. “It’s very nice. It (the terminal) caught my attention it has a lot of color and is very interesting.”
Local Jersey centric art, interior themes and decor make the point clear this is New Jersey, not New York.
Courtney Caraballo, who arrived on a flight from Fort Lauderdale, said she’s flown from Newark Airport’s other terminals roughly five years ago and did not expect to land in a brand new terminal.
“No one said anything on the plane. I had no idea it was new until two minutes ago,” she said while waiting on the baggage claim level. “It’s beautiful, the colors, how clean it is, how modern everything is. I think it’s gorgeous.”
While she only saw some of the restaurants and retail areas, one caught her eye.
“I saw a Shake Shack and I haven’t seen a Shake Shack in an airport,” Caraballo said.
Raj Malhotra of Newark flew out of the old Terminal A last week to Salt Lake City and was surprised to arrive home at the new terminal.
“We landed today and the pilot was like, ‘Hey guys, they’re directing us to the new terminal,’” he said. “It was pretty cool to fly in here.”
Malhotra said he’s been flying out of Newark’s three original terminals for more than 15 years and remarked how the new terminal looks clean and modern compared to the others.
“It definitely looks very in the 21st century, which is nice,” he said. “It’s kind of catching up to a lot of other airports around the country.”
But other passengers said they were more focused on airline issues than the new terminal, especially some who’d been coping with flight delays due to this week’s Federal Aviation Administration computer problem that temporarily grounded flights across the nation.
“We sat waiting to get into the gate for 30 minutes, that was a problem,” said David Wilson of Toms River. “It seems like they don’t have the amount of employees they need to get bags down here. There isn’t that many for the hour of the day.”
Wilson, who said he flew in from Salt Lake City ,estimated he’d been waiting an hour for his bags. “It takes forever,” he said.
Elizabeth Mayor Chris Bollwage was there with city employees handing out commemorative “Greetings from Terminal A in Elizabeth” postcards, making sure the city wasn’t overshadowed by the other city the airport is named for.
“Newark Airport is closer to New York than the other airport,” the mayor said, standing under the mammoth NJ letters. “I think this terminal amplifies all the good of our city and the state.”
The new Terminal A was ceremonially opened on Nov. 15 at a ribbon cutting ceremony with Gov. Phil Murphy and other dignitaries. While a Dec. 8 opening date was announced after the ceremony, that date was put off because of issues fine tuning the building fire and security alarm systems. Officials pushed the opening to January rather than bring a new building on line during the busy Christmas holiday travel season.
Getting to the new terminal will take some getting used to, since roads leading to it bear to the right off the circular boulevard that connects the old Terminal A, B and C. Travelers taking the AirTrain/monorail to the new terminal also will have a different experience, since the station is a five minute shuttle bus ride or 14 minute walk away from the terminal.
Future plans will bring the AirTrain closer to the terminal when the old monorail system is replaced.
The new terminal will be built out to 33 gates with the completion of the remaining 12 gates in the second phase of the construction project that started in 2018.
The 1-million square-foot terminal replaces a 600,000-square-foot building that was constructed before modern airport security requirements, and had little space to accommodate Transportation Security Administration checkpoints and lines.
Port Authority officials had to retrofit the old Terminal A to provide an area for security, which gave the pre-check point area in the front of the building a cramped and circuitous feel.
The new terminal has more space from the moment travels drive-up to departure drop-offs, which continues inside the building with high ceilings, wide aisles and floor space and a cavernous TSA security area.
After security, travelers can treat themselves to any number of 60 shops and restaurants, including storefronts dedicated to locally and minority owned businesses from Newark, Elizabeth and Jersey City.
For the Port Authority, Terminal A represents the first step in the rebuilding of Newark Airport, work that will continue with the next major project to replace the aging 1996 vintage AirTrain monorail with a new $2 billion system. An expected fall bid award to a builder-operator was put off after bids came in too high. The project is being rebid.
Terminal B will conceptually be the next building replacement project. In October, the Port Authority hired an aviation planning firm and an architect to oversee redevelopment of the rest of the airport, including architectural, planning, engineering and business development out to 2065.
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Larry Higgs may be reached at [email protected].
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