Teterboro Airport

Teterboro Airport is a general aviation relief airport in the boroughs of Teterboro, Moonachie, and Hasbrouck Heights in Bergen County, New Jersey. It is owned and managed by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey and operated by AFCO AvPORTS Management. The airport is in the New Jersey Meadowlands, from Midtown Manhattan, which makes it popular for private and corporate aircraft. The airport has a weight limit of on aircraft, making it nonviable as an airline airport. The airport takes up almost all of Teterboro and consists of : for aircraft hangar and offices, for aeronautical use and runways, and undeveloped. The airport has more than 1,137 employees, of whom more than 90% are full-time. In April 2009, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) reported that the airport had the third-highest rate of wildlife strikes of any airport in the United States, based on takeoffs and landings (43 per 100,000). Teterboro is home to many private aviation charter companies flying nationally and globally. Teterboro Airport is the oldest operating airport in the New York City area. Walter C. Teter (1863–1929) acquired the property in 1917. North American Aviation operated a manufacturing plant on the site during World War I. After the war, the airport served as a base of operations for Anthony Fokker, the Dutch aircraft designer. The first flight from the present airport site was made in 1919. In 1926, Colonial Air Transport at Teterboro was the first private company to deliver mail by air. During World War II, the United States Army operated the airport. The Port Authority of New York & New Jersey purchased it on April 1, 1949, from Fred L. Wehran, a private owner, and later leased it to Pan American World Airways (and its successor organization Johnson Controls) for 30 years until December 1, 2000, when the Port Authority assumed full responsibility for the operation of Teterboro. In 2003, U.S. Congressman Steve Rothman helped authorize a federal bill to retain a ban on aircraft exceeding a weight of from taking off from Teterboro because of excessive noise in the surrounding residential areas.