It was a big day for New York Stewart International Airport, which, for the first time since 2019, started offering international flights from Newburgh to Europe.

Iceland-based airline PLAY started service from Stewart to Iceland with connecting flights to several European hotspots like London, Paris and Dublin.

Making it possible was a new $30 million Customs and Border Patrol inspections station at the airport.

A Hudson Valley travel agent said leaving from Stewart had been a plus for Hudson Valley travelers looking to avoid the hassles of traveling to JFK, Newark or LaGuardia, and she’s looking forward to the return of international flights in Newburgh.

"When we had Norwegian Airlines several years back with their nonstop flights from here to Dublin, Northern Ireland and Scotland as well, we had a huge demand, and we had groups of people traveling from here to those destinations," said Manuela Mocan of World Wide Travel in Cornwall. "I’m really, really hoping that PLAY is going to be as successful as Norwegian, and we’re going to have a really good impact on the business going right from here to Europe."