Airlines wooed to suburban N.Y. airport

NEWBURGH, N.Y., Sept. 24 (UPI) -- A New York airport operator is wooing airlines at LaGuardia and other city airports to a suburban airport it is taking over, a published report said Monday.

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey would not say which airlines it was courting to Stewart International Airport, but likely targets include Continental Airlines Inc., which operates from LaGuardia, Kennedy and Newark airports, and discount carrier Spirit Airlines Inc., which flies from LaGuardia, Mid-Hudson News Network reported.

Stewart, in Newburgh, N.Y., 60 miles north of New York, has separately been pursuing discount carrier Southwest Airlines Co., which does not fly into New York, the news service reported.

Low-cost start-up carrier Skybus Airlines Inc. "has had its eye on Stewart for months," the news service said.

Discounters JetBlue Airways Corp. and AirTran Holdings Inc.'s AirTran Airways, along with Delta Air Lines Inc., Northwest Airlines Corp. and US Airways Group Inc.'s US Airways, already fly from Stewart.

The Port Authority, which takes over Stewart Nov. 1, approved $17.1 million in airport road improvements, parking-lot expansion and runway upgrades Thursday.

The U.S. Transportation Security Administration also approved new baggage-screening machines that will process luggage three times faster than the airport's current system.

The number of passengers at Stewart has tripled in the past year.