The plan to create a fourth major airport that could relieve crowding and delays in NYC's metropolitan region took a leap forward, officials of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey told the New York Times. The Port Authority plans to acquire a 93-year lease on Stewart International Airport, an airport 60 miles north of New York City, and begin expanding it starting in the fall. The agency has budgeted $150 million for improvements to Stewart that could include additional parking and the construction of an international passenger terminal. Stewart is bigger than Newark's airport. Two low-fare airlines, JetBlue Airways and AirTran Airways, began offering flights recently from Stewart, in New Windsor, NY. Three other carriers operate limited service from there. Passenger traffic could triple this year to about 900,000 passengers. The region's three main airports together handled more than 100 million passengers last year.
