Passengers queue up for Norwegian Air fights
STEWART AIRPORT – Norwegian Air’s European service from Stewart International Airport has more than doubled the number of passengers using the Newburgh area airport in July and August.
Norwegian, which began service in mid-July, flies to Dublin and Shannon, Ireland; Belfast, Northern Ireland; Edinburgh, Scotland; and Bergen, Norway.
The airline has just received US Transportation Department permission to fly to the United Kingdom and while no announcements have been made, Stewart Business Development Director Michael Torelli told the Stewart Airport Commission on Tuesday that it makes sense to add service from the Mid-Hudson to the UK.
“I think there is going to be good uplift to England and the UK from there, but we will see. They have a lot of good activity already there, flying out of there, but not to Stewart yet,” Torelli said.
With the Norwegian flights, total July passenger count rose to 55,708, more than double the 26,346 one year earlier. August passenger count at Stewart was 56,621 compared with 25,969 in the same month 2016.
Year-to-date, in the first eight months of the year, a total of 259,350 people used Stewart compared with 182,133 during the same period last year.
Torelli said if passenger loads continue, taking into account peak and low months, Stewart is headed to 400,000 travelers by the end of the year.
