TSA Commemorates 20 Years At Stewart Airport

NEW WINDSOR, NY — Twenty years ago, New York Stewart International Airport in New Windsor was federalized.

On Saturday, officials from the Transportation Security Administration commemorated the anniversary at the airport in Orange County.

The airport, which is identified as SWF, began under TSA security Nov. 12, 2002, when the first security checkpoint was first staffed by federal officers — a little more than one year after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

“From the initial federalization as a TSA airport 20 years ago until the present day, the professional and well-trained security officer workforce here at Stewart Airport has focused on this mission every day,” said Robert Duffy, TSA’s federal security director for Stewart, “and is executing with state-of-the-art equipment to prevent another terrorist attack from occurring.”

He said, in the intervening years since launching, the TSA has developed and implemented strong security procedures, built a well-trained, highly skilled professional workforce.

The agency also introduced a wide array of state-of-the-art technologies to screen passengers, baggage and cargo, Duffy said.

The Aviation and Transportation Security Act became law in November 2001, formally establishing the TSA. That fall, TSA consisted of about 100 people working at folding tables in the basement of the Department of Transportation national office. Today, 20 years later, there are 430 federalized airports and a workforce of about 60,000 employees nationwide. TSA has a staff of approximately 60 employees who are assigned to work at Stewart. Ten members of the TSA workforce have been working at SWF since the airport was federalized.