Congestion pricing sounds like it should hit your airport ride hard. For limo riders, it mostly doesn’t. If a limo or black car takes you to or from Manhattan at or below 60th Street, you pay an extra $0.75 for the trip. The $9 toll you’ve read about is for private cars, and it never shows up on a chauffeured ride.
What does pile up is everything else on the receipt: a state surcharge, an airport fee at JFK and LaGuardia, and whatever the bridges and tunnels charge. Together, those cost far more than the $0.75 does.
The Invisible Line at 60th Street
Think of 60th Street as a tripwire stretched across the island, a block north of Central Park South. Everything south of it, 60th included, is the Congestion Relief Zone, in place since January 5, 2025. Nobody stops you. There are no booths and no gates. Cameras pick up the plate, and in a black car the charge simply lands on your fare.
The FDR Drive, the West Side Highway and the Hugh L. Carey Tunnel connections to West Street are left out of the zone. For everything else, a limo rider only needs one test: does the trip start in the zone, end in it, or run through it? If so, you pay.
Why Limo Riders Pay 75 Cents, Not $9
The 9figure(2.25 overnight with E-ZPass) was built for people driving their own cars into Manhattan, and it’s charged once a day. Taxis, black cars and app rides got a separate, smaller deal. A yellow cab, green cab or black car adds $0.75 per trip. Uber and Lyft add $1.50. The passenger covers it, not the driver.
One detail confuses people. The $9 toll changes with the clock (peak runs 5 a.m. to 9 p.m. on weekdays and 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. on weekends), so it’s natural to assume your limo charge does too. It doesn’t. The $0.75 is flat, which means a 6 a.m. airport run costs the same as a Friday afternoon one. And if a black car receipt shows a $9 toll, call the company, because something’s off.
Your Airport Receipt, Line by Line
Congestion pricing gets the headlines, but it’s the smallest number on the bill. Say you land at JFK and your driver takes you to a hotel near Bryant Park. The government side of that receipt can look like this:
| Charge | Amount | Set by |
| Congestion Relief Zone charge | $0.75 per trip | MTA |
| State congestion surcharge | $2.75 per for-hire trip below 96th Street | New York State |
| Airport access fee | $3.50 per pick-up and per drop-off at JFK and LaGuardia | Port Authority |
| Bridge and tunnel tolls | Varies by route | MTA or Port Authority |
Add the first three, and you’re at $7.00 before tolls or tip. That’s simple addition from the published rates, and your company may package it differently.
The state surcharge generally applies only when a trip starts and ends in New York State, so a Newark ride may not carry it. Some companies bundle all of this into one flat price. Others itemize every line. Either works, as long as you know which one you’re buying.
Which Airport Rides Trigger the Charge
Your route decides it. These are the common trips:
| Trip | $0.75 zone charge? |
| JFK, LaGuardia, or Newark to a Midtown hotel | Yes |
| Any airport to Lower Manhattan | Yes |
| Midtown hotel to any airport | Yes, it works both ways |
| Airport to Brooklyn or Queens | Usually no |
| Long Island to JFK or LaGuardia | Usually no |
| Airport to the Upper East or Upper West Side | Usually no, if the route stays above 60th Street |
The word “usually” is doing real work in that table. If your hotel sits right around 60th Street, ask the company how the driver plans to get there. One turn can put you in or out of the zone.
Long Island riders get a small break here. A ride from Roslyn or anywhere else in Nassau County straight to JFK or LaGuardia usually stays out of the zone. A ride from Long Island to a Midtown hotel does not.
The Fees Climbing Next
The airport fee at JFK and LaGuardia deserves your attention more than the toll does. It was $2.50 before 2026. The Port Authority has already moved it to $3.50 and approved $4.50 for March 2027 and $5.00 for March 2028, charged on every pick-up and every drop-off. A round trip to the airport pays it twice, so by 2028 that’s $10 just for reaching the curb.
Is the Toll Here to Stay?
For now, yes, though the legal fight isn’t over. The federal government tried to end the program, and on March 3, 2026, a federal judge ruled that the Transportation Department’s attempt was unlawful. The government appealed to the Second Circuit, and that appeal is still pending this fall.
Meanwhile, the charges keep running, and no court has told the MTA to stop. If you’re pricing a trip for next month, assume the $0.75 is on the bill.
How Congestion Pricing Changed the Road to the Airport
The zone has fewer cars in it now. State data shows about 11% fewer vehicles entered during the first year, roughly 73,000 a day, and the tolls brought in around $548 million in net revenue in 2025.
The drive to the airport is a different story. The Van Wyck Expressway and the Grand Central Parkway sit outside the zone, so they still clog up at rush hour. If your flight leaves on a weekday evening, leave earlier than feels necessary, and book a company that tracks your flight so the driver isn’t guessing when you land.
Five Questions to Ask Before You Book
Ask any company these five things before you pay a deposit:
- Is the $0.75 zone charge in my price?
- Does the price include the Port Authority airport fee?
- Are bridge and tunnel tolls included, or added later?
- Is the state surcharge listed?
- Will my receipt show each charge on its own line?
Pay attention to how they answer. A direct, specific reply is a good sign. “Everything’s included,” with nothing in writing, is not.
If you are planning an airport ride from Long Island? JFK Airport Limousines has served Long Island and all over New York since 2005, with professional airport transfers, weddings and corporate travel among its services. You can book Airport limo and car service through our website, or you can directly call us at: +1 718-241-2900.