John F Kennedy International Airport

Specialties

JFK is located in New York City’s Borough of Queens and is 15 miles from midtown Manhattan. The airport is easily accessible from the Van Wyck Expressway and has seven operating airline terminals. The 11-​gate international Terminal 1 was built by several airlines on the site of the former Eastern Airlines Terminal. Delta Air Lines operates Terminals 2 and 3, and is working to create new state-​of-​the-​art terminal space at Terminal 4, which is home to many international airlines. JetBlue operates from the 26-​gate Terminal 5. British Airways operates Terminal 7, which also is home to United Airlines. American Airlines’ Terminal 8 serves both domestic and international passengers on three concourses. AirTrain JFK connects the airport with the Long Island Rail Road and New York City subways and buses. At the airport, AirTrain provides free connections between terminals, rental car facilities, hotel shuttle areas, and parking lots.

History

Established in 1947.

Construction for a new international airport began in 1942 on the site of the Idlewild Golf Course. The Port Authority began operating the airport on June 1, 1947, under a lease with New York City. Commercial flights out of Idlewild Airport began July 1, 1948. The airport was rededicated as John F. Kennedy International Airport on December 24, 1963, in memory of the nation’s thirty-​fifth president. JFK International made aviation history on March 19, 2007, when the A380, the world’s largest plane, touched down on U.S. soil for the first time in a route-​proving test and again on August 1, 2008, when an Emirates Airline A380 landed at JFK on the first regularly scheduled arrival of the A380 into the U.S.

Meet the Manager

PANYNJ W.

Manager

The Port Authority of NY & NJ operates many of the region’s important transportation links including John F. Kennedy International, Newark Liberty International, LaGuardia, Stewart International and Teterboro airports; AirTrain JFK and AirTrain Newark; the George Washington Bridge and Bus Station; the Lincoln and Holland tunnels; the three bridges between Staten Island and New Jersey; the PATH rapid-​transit system; port facilities in New York and New Jersey; and the Port Authority Bus Terminal in midtown Manhattan. The agency also owns the 16-​acre World Trade Center site in Lower Manhattan. The Port Authority is self-​sufficient and receives no tax revenues from either state.