American Express is going big at Newark Liberty International Airport.
The credit card issuer announced on Thursday that its Centurion Lounge at Newark — the only major New York metro airport without one of the premium Amex retreats — would occupy a 30,000-square-foot, two-floor space instead of the 18,000 square feet that Amex had originally planned.
That lounge, scheduled to open next year in Terminal A, will leapfrog Amex’s current largest offering, the 26,000-square-foot Centurion at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport.
Audrey Hendley, the president of American Express Travel, said that Newark’s opening would solidify its presence in the New York metro area’s airports.
“New York is unique because travelers move among three major airports, and Newark is an important addition to our network,” Ms. Hendley said in a statement.
The Centurion Lounge will be Newark’s first lounge operated by a credit card issuer, beating out both J.P. Morgan Chase, which operates Chase Sapphire Reserve lounges, and Capital One, which runs lounges and lounge-restaurant hybrids it calls Landings.
Newark’s Centurion Lounge will have three bars, including one that celebrates New Jersey’s Italian heritage, in addition to a coffee bar. Like other Centurions, it will also feature dishes created by notable chefs such as Kwame Onwuachi and Sarah Grueneberg.
Amex also announced a series of other expansions: a second lounge at Heathrow Airport in London, as well as renovations to existing lounges at Philadelphia International Airport and George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston.
In Philadelphia, the lounge will double in size to 12,000 square feet over two stories by late next year. In Houston, the overhaul will be even more substantial: Amex plans to triple the lounge space to more than 23,000 square feet by 2028.
Amex opened its first Centurion lounge in 2013 at Harry Reid International Airport in Las Vegas. It now has 33 Centurion locations globally, making it the credit card issuer with the most airport lounges. Chase offers Sapphire Reserve lounges at nine airports. Capital One has five lounges and two Landings locations.
In April, Amex also teased a new Centurion lounge at Boston Logan International Airport, expected to open in Terminal C in 2029, and updates at the Centurion location at Dallas Fort Worth International Airport.
Access to lounges is increasingly influencing the way that customers fly. In a survey of more than 1,400 travelers conducted last fall by J.D. Power, the analytics firm, nearly half of lounge customers said they planned their flights based on preferred lounge access.
To cater to this growing market, lounge operators appear to be in a race to build bigger. This week, American Airlines announced it would open its largest Admirals Club lounge, a 40,000-square-foot space at Charlotte Douglas International Airport, in North Carolina, most likely by early 2028, a spokeswoman said. Later this month, United is expected to open a 54,000-square-foot lounge at George Bush Intercontinental Airport. This will be its most spacious United Club and also the largest airline-owned lounge in North America, a United spokeswoman said.
Lounges are also expanding in response to increasing grumbling about overcrowding.
“To protect that value proposition and keep cardholders paying those annual fees,” said Sally French, a travel expert at the personal finance website NerdWallet, “lounge operators have no choice but to build bigger and bigger lounges.”
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