For years, people kept this NJ airport a secret — the secret’s out (Opinion)

When booking a flight out of New Jersey, Newark is always a no-brainer. I was raised flying out of Newark and on rare times I will fly JFK. But when my schedule allows, I will always opt for the best airport in the state: Trenton-Mercer Airport.

Trenton Mercer is located in Mercer County and has been operating since 1929. While destinations are limited, the airport can get you to many of your typical vacation spots such as Charleston, West Palm Beach, Ft. Lauderdale, Myrtle Beach, Nashville, Minneapolis, Ft. Myers, Miami, Orlando, Chicago and more.

This is a great place to fly out of especially during the holidays if you want to avoid the craziness of the larger airports, too.

For years, I treated the airport like it was a visit to the mall. Got a spot a few yards from the front entrance, hopped in, walked to one of the ticket counters and checked in. Before 9/11 the whole process from parking to sitting at the gate was about 15 minutes.

Enough people have discovered this little airport with the hometown feel, that soon it won’t be a secret anymore. Trenton-Mercer has just announced plans to expand the airport, according to an article on communitynews.org.

In fact, the airport will be increasing its size by almost 5 times what it is now. This will replace the 28,000-square-foot terminal, which was built in the 1970s, with a new 125,000-square-foot facility, and the current building will be demolished as part of the plan.

The construction is set to begin in 2023 and will take about two years to complete. These renovations will help more New Jerseyeans have accessibility to flights in their area, and will also make Trenton-Mercer a more attractive place to fly out of.

The new airport will have better tarmacs so that passengers will no longer have to walk outside between the terminal building and their airplane when boarding and leaving their plane. Additionally, they will no longer have to walk outside from the plane to a separate building to pick up their checked baggage after landing.

If you live anywhere near this airport this is good news/bad news.

Good, because it will service more flights and destinations. Bad, because you’ll no longer feel like it’s your own private airport.

Opinions expressed in the post above are those of New Jersey 101.5 talk show host Judi Franco only.

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