Trenton-Mercer Airport: New Jersey’s Secondary Airfield

The two paid parking lots, reflecting their aviation-related purposes with the names of "Tuskegee Airmen" and "Amelia Earhart," were relatively full, indicating passenger activity here. The single short, shabby, slanted-roof terminal was the only structure that served as the interface between the land- and airside portions of the field, although the few movements now visible were those of a Cessna 172 and a business jet. A handful of picnic tables on a grass area separated from the ramp by a chain link fence were indicative of a small, hometown airport.

Located in the shadows of Newark Liberty International, the majority of the airline departures it witnessed today were apparently those above, as a line of A320s and Next-Generation 737s adhered to their standard instrument departure clearances at considerable altitude from it, perhaps oblivious to its existence and ignorant of its purpose.

But the engraved rock next to the terminal brought both into focus. "Trenton-Mercer Airport County Executive Brian M. Hughes and the Board of Chosen Freeholders commemorate Mercer-County Airport, 90th Anniversary, October 26, 1929 – October 26, 2019," it said.

Although what could be considered New Jersey’s secondary commercial airfield seemed to take a very back seat to its primary Newark one, this almost century-old facility had served its unique, but more limited purpose and it had offered its own airline service during more than half that time.

A small part of it occurred now, as a Frontier Airlines A320 taxied into its parking position and was immediately prepared for its return flight to Orlando.

Airport Origins and History

Located in Ewing Township in Mercer County, New Jersey, the airport is within a 35-mile radius of 10 of New Jersey’s 21 counties and three of Pennsylvania’s counties, including the city of Philadelphia," according to the Airport Master Plan Update 2018 prepared in cooperation with Urban Engineers and McFarland Johnson. "It is located approximately four miles from the state capital, Trenton. "(It) is convenient for much of Pennsylvania’s greater Northeast Philadelphia region, particularly Bucks and Montgomery counties and is approximately 40 miles from Philadelphia International Airport."

It evolved from grass roots beginnings. Located on the west side of now-designated I-95, it was little more than Alfred Reeder’s farm adjacent to Bear Tavern Road in Ewing, occasionally fielding private . . .