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6/19/2020
The Port of New York and New Jersey (PANYNJ) this week announced it handled dramatically low volumes at all of its facilities in April as the result of the COVID-19 crisis.
Cargo volumes at the seaport dropped 7.5 percent to 559,929 20-foot-equivalent units (TEUs) during the month compared with 605,263 TEUs in April 2019. The drop in cargo volume represented the smallest percentage decline at any of the PANYNJ facilities, port officials said in a press release.
Ridership on the Port Authority-Trans Hudson (PATH) rail system plummeted 95 percent to 14,597 passengers in April compared with April 2019.
Also, passenger volumes plunged 98 percent at JFK, Newark Liberty and LaGuardia airports during the month, while bridges and tunnels traffic tumbled 61 percent compared with April 2019 volumes.
In light of the decline in activity, port officials have requested $3 billion in direct federal assistance to offset the agency's estimated revenue losses over the next 24 months and to enable the agency to move forward with its capital construction plan, officials said.
PANYNJ does not rely on funding from New York or New Jersey, nor does it have the power to tax. It generates revenue from contractually required payments from businesses and from customer tolls, fares and fees, that have declined dramatically as volumes fell, port officials said.