LaGuardia is closest to Manhattan at roughly 9 miles and 25 to 45 minutes, making it the quickest ground transfer but largely domestic. JFK is about 15 miles and 45 to 75 minutes with the widest international network. Newark is roughly 16 miles and 45 to 70 minutes, but a Hudson River crossing makes its travel time the least predictable.
The distances are similar. The predictability is not.
On a map the three airports look comparable — nine, fifteen and sixteen miles from Midtown. In practice they behave completely differently, and the variable that matters is not distance but how many ways the route can fail.
LaGuardia's route is short and mostly parkway. JFK's has one reliable choke point, the Van Wyck Expressway, and one decent alternative via the Belt Parkway. Newark's crosses a river through one of two tunnels, and when a tunnel closes there is no good alternative at all.
That is why Newark, despite being only a mile further than JFK, is the airport where we most often advise leaving an extra thirty minutes.
Travel time by airport and time of day
The figures below are the windows we actually plan against, not best-case marketing numbers. They assume a Midtown Manhattan start.
The pattern worth noticing is that the spread between best and worst case is narrowest at LaGuardia and widest at Newark. If your schedule has no slack, that spread matters more than the average.
| Airport | From Midtown | Typical drive | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| LGA | ~9 miles | 25 – 45 min | Closest; largely domestic |
| JFK | ~15 miles | 45 – 75 min | Widest international network |
| EWR | ~16 miles | 45 – 70 min | Hudson crossing; least predictable |
Which airport suits which borough
From Queens, both JFK and LaGuardia are inside the borough and the ground leg is as short as it gets. Newark from Queens is a genuinely long run — it crosses the entire city plus a river.
From Brooklyn, JFK is the natural choice, often toll-free via the Belt Parkway. LaGuardia is workable. Newark is a long way.
From Manhattan all three are viable, and the choice usually comes down to the flight rather than the ground leg. From the West Side, Newark is closer than it looks.
From the Bronx and Westchester, LaGuardia is usually closest, and Newark is more reasonable than it is from Brooklyn or Queens because the George Washington Bridge route avoids Manhattan entirely.
The ground leg is part of the trip
The ground leg tracks distance and tolls fairly closely, and Newark's extra burden is almost entirely the Hudson crossing and the Turnpike rather than distance.
If you are choosing between flights from Newark and LaGuardia, weigh the ground leg both ways before deciding — time, tolls and predictability. Ask for a quote on both and the difference is often larger than people expect.
The ground leg can outweigh the flight choice
This is the comparison most travellers skip. A flight from Newark that looks better on paper than the equivalent from LaGuardia may not be once the ground leg is counted, because the Newark transfer is longer and carries more tolls from almost everywhere in New York City.
The gap is widest from Queens and Brooklyn, where Newark means crossing the entire city and a river.
From the West Side of Manhattan the difference narrows considerably, and Newark becomes genuinely competitive. Geography matters more than the airport's reputation here.
Which airport is least likely to make you late
LaGuardia, comfortably — not because its road is better but because it is shorter and has fewer independent ways to fail. Nine miles of parkway has a narrower worst case than sixteen miles through a river tunnel.
JFK is second. The Van Wyck Expressway is a reliable choke point but the Belt Parkway is a genuine alternative, so a single incident rarely strands you.
Newark is the one to build a buffer for. When a Hudson tunnel closes there is no good substitute — the George Washington Bridge adds distance and carries its own congestion. That is why we advise an extra thirty minutes for Newark departures and rarely for the other two.
Terminal experience and connection risk
LaGuardia's rebuild has made it a materially better airport to depart from than it was, and its compact footprint means the walk from kerb to gate is short.
JFK is the opposite: a ring of separate terminal buildings with no straightforward airside connection between all of them. If you are connecting between airlines in different terminals at JFK, budget far more time than the itinerary suggests.
Newark's terminals are connected by AirTrain and its rebuilt terminal is genuinely good. Its weakness is the ground approach rather than the building.
Frequently asked questions
LaGuardia, at roughly nine miles from Midtown and typically twenty-five to forty-five minutes by car. JFK is about fifteen miles and Newark about sixteen.
It depends where in Manhattan. From the West Side, Newark can be quicker than JFK outside peak hours. From the East Side, JFK usually wins. Newark's travel time is the less predictable of the two because it depends on a Hudson River tunnel.
LaGuardia from most of Manhattan and the Bronx, and JFK or LaGuardia from Queens, where both sit inside the borough. Newark is consistently the longest ground transfer because of the Hudson crossing and Turnpike tolls.
Forty-five to seventy-five minutes. Plan for the upper end between 3:30pm and 7pm on weekdays, when the Van Wyck Expressway is at its worst.
JFK has by far the widest international network, followed by Newark. LaGuardia is predominantly domestic with limited short-haul international service.
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