The short answer
Choose the airport by where you are actually going rather than by name. Teterboro is twelve miles from midtown and right for Manhattan, subject to a weight limit and a night curfew. Westchester is better for the northern suburbs and Connecticut but has a strict 11pm curfew. Morristown serves western New Jersey and Republic serves Long Island. The ground journey from the field, at the hour you are actually arriving, matters more than anything about the aircraft.
Note. Rewritten in 2026 from a 2021 original.
Start with the address, not the airport
This is the single most useful thing in this article.
Most people book the airport they have heard of. The better approach is to name the destination address and work backwards, because the ground journey at the hour you are arriving frequently dominates every other variable in the trip.
An Upper East Side arrival at 5pm on a Friday can genuinely be faster through Westchester than through Teterboro, despite Teterboro being nine miles closer. At 11am on a Tuesday it is not. Ask; do not assume.
The airports, briefly
Teterboro (TEB) — twelve miles from midtown, the default for Manhattan. Weight restriction of 100,000 lb and a voluntary night curfew.
Westchester (HPN) — the northern suburbs, Greenwich and Fairfield County. Strictly enforced 11pm to 6:30am curfew.
Morristown (MMU) — western New Jersey, and quieter than Teterboro.
Republic (FRG) — Long Island, and a much better answer than crossing the city.
The full breakdown of each is here.
Timing
New York is one of the busiest airspaces in the world and it behaves accordingly.
- Mid-morning to early afternoon is the smoothest window for both airspace and roads.
- Friday evening inbound and Sunday evening outbound are the weekly peaks in this market by a wide margin.
- Winter weather produces ground delay programs with real regularity. Build slack into anything that connects to something else.
Curfews are not advisory
Westchester’s curfew is enforced. If your meeting overruns and you are pushing 11pm at HPN, that is a genuine problem rather than a negotiation, and the answer is usually a different departure field.
We check curfew exposure against your itinerary in advance rather than raising it on the day, which sounds obvious and is not universal practice.
Arriving from Florida
The Northeast–Florida corridor is the most-flown private route in the country, and it is comfortably a light-jet leg — around 915 nautical miles from Teterboro to Palm Beach, roughly two and a half to three hours.
Northbound is typically a little quicker than southbound because of prevailing winds. Which aircraft actually suits this route covers the choice in detail — and the short version is that most people book more aircraft than the trip requires.
Ground transport
Arrange it in advance and have it meet the aircraft. The entire time saving of flying privately can be given back waiting on a kerb, and it is the most avoidable failure in the whole journey.
Related questions
While we are here.
How far is Teterboro from Manhattan?
About twelve miles, which is twenty minutes at a good hour and considerably more at a bad one. Traffic on the approach roads is the real variable rather than the distance.
What is the best time to fly into New York privately?
Mid-morning and early afternoon are the least congested for both the airspace and the roads. Friday evenings into the New York area, and Sunday evenings out of it, are the busiest periods of the week in this market.