New York City inching toward airport expansion

With the three major metro area airports already stretched thin, New York Port Authority officials are considering ways to expand travelers' options.

One possibility, according to a

story

in this weekend's

New York Times

(registration required), is creating a fourth major metropolitan airport by massively expanding one of the several outlying airports.

The New York metro area is currently served by LaGuardia, JFK, and Newark airports. Islip and White Plains also receive some traffic bound for the Big Apple, but both are small and lack easy public transportation to the city. Nevertheless, they are among six regional airports that might be considered for expansion. The others are Newburgh, Trenton, Atlantic City, and Allentown.

The costs of building a new airport from scratch close to the city are widely considered prohibitive.