New York’s John F. Kennedy Airport Getting $13 Billion Makeover
by Daniel McCarthy
Work on the new JFK is expected to start in 2020. Photo: Leonard Zhukovsky / Shutterstock.com.
New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport, the sixth busiest U.S. airport in 2017 according to total passenger bookings, will be getting a major facelift starting in 2020.
The airport will be made over with two new terminals, better runways and security, and a new centralized ground transport that will allow it to increase its capacity by 15 million passengers a year, according to Gov. Andrew Cuomo.
“Either you are building and you are creating, or you are getting left behind, that is the simple reality of life,” he said.
Construction will kick off in 2020 and is forecasted to be mostly completed by 2025.
The plan, which was initially announced two years ago, is for the remade JFK to include two, large connected terminals on opposite ends that will allow passengers to go from one to the other without leaving the airport — right now, passengers have to use the airport’s AirTrain to go from one to the other. The AirTrain itself will also be the subject of the facelift, with capacity expected to double.
The renovated JFK will also be able to host larger international flights.
Roads around the airport, which Cuomo described as a “spaghetti bowl” during a speech announcing the details of the project, will be redesigned, as well.
