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In short: The busiest single starting zones for airport trips are in Midtown Manhattan, though no zone sends more than about 6% of any airport's trips. Times Square/Theatre District is the top origin zone for trips to LaGuardia and Newark, and the top Manhattan zone for JFK. But the picture splits by industry. Yellow taxi trips to the airports start mostly in Manhattan. App trips to JFK come from all over Queens and Brooklyn, and the top zone is South Ozone Park, right next to the airport. Across the day, trips to JFK and LaGuardia peak for rides starting in the 5 a.m. hour. Data: TLC trip records, September 2025 – August 2026.
The numbers at a glance
Map: which zones feed the airports
As a share of each zone's app trips, the leaders were Times Sq/Theatre District (15.2%), Roosevelt Island (12.2%), World Trade Center (12.0%), Midtown South (11.6%), and Baisley Park and Financial District North (11.5% each). South Ozone Park, which borders the JFK zone, ranks high too (10.9%). The data shows where trips start, not why. A zone can rank high because of hotels, offices or homes, and the records don't separate these.
Top origin zones for each airport
No single zone sends even 6% of all trips to any one airport. Airport demand is spread across the city, but it is heaviest in Midtown.
By count, the five biggest origin zones for JFK and LaGuardia combined were Times Sq/Theatre District (408,061 trips), Midtown Center (253,132), Midtown South (238,647), Midtown East (201,751) and Midtown North (195,898). The first non-Manhattan zone on the list was South Ozone Park (186,591). These counts come from the map data above.
By industry: taxis are Manhattan, apps are everywhere
Shares don't add up to 100% because a few trips start at the airport zones themselves or in unknown zones. Green cabs are left out of the table because they made only 3,907 trips to JFK, 14,107 to LaGuardia and 289 to Newark. Their top origin for LaGuardia was Elmhurst (36% of green cab trips there).
The early-morning peak
On weekdays, trips to JFK that start in the 5 a.m. hour average about 1,398 a day. For LaGuardia it is about 1,490. These are the busiest hours of the day for both. Newark looks different. Its weekday morning peak (about 442 trips starting at 5 a.m.) is smaller than its 2 p.m. peak (about 497), shown in zone-1-dropoffs-by-hour. For drivers, the early hours are when city riders are heading out. The pickups-by-hour page shows the return side.
What the data can't tell you
- Where people really started. A taxi zone is an area, not an address. Hotels, train stations and homes in the same zone look the same.
- Non-app black car and livery trips are not counted.
- Trips within the airport zone (21.5% of yellow trips ending at JFK started there too) can be terminal-to-terminal rides or recording quirks. The records don't say which.
- Airport-to-airport trips, such as LaGuardia to JFK, are left out of the count map but included in the top-10 charts and the table.
- Snapshot. These figures cover one year. TLC may revise files after publishing.
Related: airport trip economics, busiest taxi zones for drop-offs, NYC airport trip statistics, the airport access fee, the airport fee on an Uber receipt, the pickup rules 80-19(a)(4)(i) and 80-19(f), LaGuardia Airport and the airports topic.
Frequently asked questions
Which neighborhood sends the most trips to the airports?
Times Square/Theatre District. In TLC trip records for Sep 2025 – Aug 2026, it was the top origin zone for trips to LaGuardia and Newark, and the top Manhattan origin for trips to JFK. It sent about 408,000 yellow, green and app trips to JFK and LaGuardia combined.
Do app trips to JFK come from different places than taxi trips?
Yes. About 64% of yellow taxi trips to JFK started in Manhattan, but only 39% of app trips did. App trips to JFK came from Queens (30%) and Brooklyn (27%) much more often, and the single top origin zone for app trips to JFK was South Ozone Park, next to the airport.
When do most people head to the airports?
Early morning. Drop-offs at JFK and LaGuardia peak for trips starting in the 5 a.m. hour on weekdays: about 1,400 a day at JFK and 1,490 at LaGuardia. Newark has a morning peak and an even bigger mid-afternoon one.
Does this data include black cars and car services?
Only Uber and Lyft (high-volume) trips, yellow taxis and green cabs. Other black car, livery and limo trips have no location-level counts in these files.
Sources
Last reviewed against the official sources on .
- NYC TLC Trip Record Data (yellow, green, high-volume FHV), Sep 2025 – Aug 2026 nyc.gov
- TLC Taxi Zone Lookup Table d37ci6vzurychx.cloudfront.net
Spotted something out of date? Tell us and we'll check it against the official source.
TLC Help is not a law firm and is not affiliated with the NYC Taxi & Limousine Commission or OATH. Explanations on this site are general information, not legal advice. Legal representation is provided by independent attorneys and OATH-registered representatives in our network.