Ready on your flight in Terminal B at Newark Liberty International Airport (EWR) is not precisely too inspiring.
The terminal’s low ceilings and crowded gate areas aren’t essentially probably the most welcoming, and the concession choices aren’t all that a lot better than what’ll probably be served on board, particularly in case you’re seated in enterprise class.
Whereas a long-term replacement for Terminal B is within the works, the excellent news is that there is an thrilling short-term repair for vacationers: the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which oversees the airport, plans to award three new leases for lounge updates.
Here is the newest.
Air France plans new Newark lounge
Maybe probably the most thrilling information is that Air France, one of many newest airlines to serve Newark, needs to open its personal lounge on the airport.
The Paris-based provider submitted a proposal for a seven-year lease of a 6,129-square-foot lounge in Newark’s Terminal B. If permitted on the upcoming Port Authority board assembly on Thursday, the lease would go into impact round Jan. 1, 2025. (The Port Authority board has really useful that the chief director transfer ahead with this proposal.)
Whereas particulars are scant, Air France pays lease equal to roughly $13.4 million through the preliminary time period of the lease. It’ll additionally make investments not less than $3 million to refurbish the lounge area.
There isn’t any telling the place precisely the Air France lounge could be positioned, and the provider declined to touch upon its pending lease proposal.
That stated, Air France simply readded flights to Newark in December 2022, after pulling out of the market in 2012.
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Because the airline is seeking to make investments a lot cash right into a everlasting lounge area, the newly resumed route from Newark to Paris appears to be doing nicely sufficient to help such long-term funding.
British Airways plans overhauled Newark lounge
Along with the brand new Air France lounge, British Airways is planning to speculate not less than $8.5 million to “absolutely rehabilitate and refurbish the lounge area” that it makes use of at Newark’s Terminal B.
The airline’s present lounge at Newark is nearly common. It options sweeping apron views from floor-to-ceiling home windows, in addition to a wide range of seating areas, nevertheless it might positively use some extra fashionable touches.
The Port Authority did not share any extra particulars in regards to the proposed upgrades, nevertheless it did say that the provider would obtain one other seven-year lease valued at round $13.2 million if permitted by the company’s govt director.
La Compagnie retains its Newark lounge
Lastly, La Compagnie, the French all-business-class leisure-focused carrier, at the moment operates a lounge at Newark, dubbed Lounge&Co.
This outpost occupies the area of the former Virgin Atlantic Clubhouse, which mysteriously closed in mid-2023 with out discover. The area lay vacant for a while earlier than it emerged as a La Compagnie lounge earlier this 12 months.
The provider did not put a lot work into the lounge — it nonetheless maintains a lot of the decor from the Virgin Atlantic days — nevertheless it does plan to resume its lease for the area.
The practically 5,000-square-foot lounge will value La Compagnie practically $8 million in lease for the following seven years. Along with the lease funds, the airline would want to additionally make investments not less than $1.9 million “to refurbish the lounge,” the Port Authority says in its board agenda.
We’ll be following alongside intently as a result of these enhancements to the passenger expertise at Newark’s most dreaded terminal cannot come quickly sufficient.
After all, all of those lounge upgrades come because the airport additionally expects to debut a new American Express Centurion Lounge in some unspecified time in the future in 2026.
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