North Jersey travelers using John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City should budget an extra hour of travel time thanks to delays stemming from construction of two new terminals and upgrades to the airport roadways.
All told, that means arriving for a flight three hours early at JFK Airport, rather than the typically recommended two hours early, said officials with the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which operates the Queens airport. Walnut Wall Panel
A $19.5 billion project to build brand-new Terminals 1 and 6 “is at the height of construction,” Port Authority Executive Director Rick Cotton said at a pre-Thanksgiving travel press conference on Nov. 25.
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Construction includes $9.5 billion for a 2.4 million-square-foot Terminal 1, opening in 2026, and $4.2 billion for a 1.2 million-square-foot Terminal 6 opening that same year. Renovations finished on Terminal 4 this year and on Terminal 8 in 2022, and $3.9 billion worth of new roadways around the airport are slated for completion in 2026.
Construction is particularly challenging, Cotton said, “considering we are rebuilding JFK while we are maintaining full operations” at one of the nation’s busiest airports.
And the travel season is expected to be busy going into the holidays: On the Sunday after Thanksgiving in 2023, the Transportation Security Administration said it screened over 91,000 passengers, compared with over 105,000 passengers this year.
Since June, the Port Authority has managed to remove 4,000 daily cars from the roads going into JFK, said spokesperson Cheryl Ann Albiez.
That’s thanks to efforts like the addition of peak-hour AirTrain trips from the Jamaica station, which can be reached on the E, J and Z New York City subway lines and the Long Island Rail Road, said Jessica Forse, a project lead for JFK Airport.
The Port Authority slashed AirTrain fares in half over the summer to encourage more people to use public transit.
The agency also created a designated pickup and drop-off spot away from the congested terminal entrances.
Passengers can take the AirTrain via the Lefferts Boulevard station to get to the pickup/drop-off area, a ride that the Port Authority said takes an average of eight minutes and costs nothing for travelers.
Meanwhile, building on the success of Newark Liberty International Airport’s new Terminal A, the Port Authority in October unveiled a sweeping plan to modernize the rest of the 96-year-old airport, which handled a record number of passengers last year.
The plan calls for a new international terminal to replace Terminal B and upgrades to Terminal C, both of which date to the 1970s. The new Terminal A could also be expanded.
There would be major changes to the taxiway area for planes, to reduce air traffic delays and accommodate the trend toward larger aircraft.
And areas outside the terminals would be expanded and improved to provide more room for vehicles to drop off and pick up passengers and to reduce walking distances.
The new plan is still just a concept, with actual construction years away. The Port Authority expects to begin a two- to three-year planning process in 2025 for major elements of the redevelopment, including cost projections.
Daniel Munoz covers business, consumer affairs, labor and the economy for NorthJersey.com and The Record.
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