MSNBC television identified the man as Shahzad Faisal, a Pakistani-American, and said he was arrested on Long Island, New York.
CNN said the man was trying to board a plane for an unknown location at John F. Kennedy International Airport and that investigators were looking for others in the probe.
The New York Times said the suspect lived in the US state of Connecticut.
Authorities had launched a massive manhunt with the FBI’s terrorism task force and local New York police to try to catch the would-be bomber.
MSNBC said the 30-year-old man had been linked to a sports utility vehicle seized with explosives late Saturday in the busy New York district.
New York has been on constant watch since the September 11, 2001, airliner attacks that destroyed the World Trade Center, killing almost 3,000 people.
So far, the only group to claim responsibility for the would-be bombing is the Pakistani militant group Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP).
When authorities recovered the SUV it was laden with three propane tanks, dozens of firecrackers, two tanks of gasoline and fertilizer, and parked at the corner or West 45th Street and Broadway, an area full of pedestrians.
Source: DAWN