John F. Kennedy International Airport

John F. Kennedy International Airport is an international airport

International airport

An international airport is any airport that can accommodate flights from other countries and are typically equipped with customs and immigration facilities to handle these flights to and from other countries...

located in the borough

Borough (New York City)

New York City, one of the largest cities in the world, is composed of five boroughs. Each borough now has the same boundaries as the county it is in. County governments were dissolved when the city consolidated in 1898, along with all city, town, and village governments within each county...

of Queens

Queens

Queens is the easternmost of the five boroughs of New York City. The largest borough in area and the second-largest in population, it is coextensive with Queens County, an administrative division of New York state, in the United States....

in New York City

New York City

New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

, about 12 miles (19.3 km) southeast of Lower Manhattan

Lower Manhattan

Lower Manhattan is the southernmost part of the island of Manhattan, the main island and center of business and government of the City of New York...

. It is the busiest international air passenger gateway to the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

, handling more international traffic than any other airport in North America

North America

North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...

It is also the leading freight gateway to the country by value of shipments. In 2010, the airport handled 46,514,154 passengers, making it the 14th busiest airport

World's busiest airports by passenger traffic

The world's busiest airports by passenger traffic are measured by number of total passengers . One passenger is described as someone who arrives in, departs from, or transfers through the airport on a given day...

in the world in terms of passenger traffic.

Over ninety airlines operate out of JFK. It is the base of operations for JetBlue Airways

JetBlue Airways

JetBlue Airways Corporation is an American low-cost airline. The company is headquartered in the Forest Hills neighborhood of the New York City borough of Queens. Its main base is John F. Kennedy International Airport, also in Queens....

and is a major international gateway hub for American Airlines

American Airlines

American Airlines, Inc. is the world's fourth-largest airline in passenger miles transported and operating revenues. American Airlines is a subsidiary of the AMR Corporation and is headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas adjacent to its largest hub at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport...

and Delta Air Lines

Delta Air Lines

Delta Air Lines, Inc. is a major airline based in the United States and headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia. The airline operates an extensive domestic and international network serving all continents except Antarctica. Delta and its subsidiaries operate over 4,000 flights every day...

. The airport is the fourth largest hub for American Airlines and is the fifth largest hub for Delta Air Lines. In the past, it has been a hub for Eastern Air Lines

Eastern Air Lines

Eastern Air Lines was a major United States airline that existed from 1926 to 1991. Before its dissolution it was headquartered at Miami International Airport in unincorporated Miami-Dade County, Florida.-History:...

, National Airlines

National Airlines (NA)

National Airlines was an airline founded in 1934 and was headquartered on the grounds of Miami International Airport in unincorporated Miami-Dade County, Florida, United States near Miami.- History :...

, Pan American World Airways

Pan American World Airways

Pan American World Airways, commonly known as Pan Am, was the principal and largest international air carrier in the United States from 1927 until its collapse on December 4, 1991...

and Trans World Airlines

Trans World Airlines

Trans World Airlines was an American airline that existed from 1925 until it was bought out by and merged with American Airlines in 2001. It was a major domestic airline in the United States and the main U.S.-based competitor of Pan American World Airways on intercontinental routes from 1946...

. The airport was renamed after John F. Kennedy

John F. Kennedy

John Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy , often referred to by his initials JFK, was the 35th President of the United States, serving from 1961 until his assassination in 1963....

, the 35th President of the United States

President of the United States

The President of the United States of America is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president leads the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces....

. From 1964-1968, the airport code was KIA.

The airport is operated by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey

Port Authority of New York and New Jersey

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey is a bi-state port district, established in 1921 through an interstate compact, that runs most of the regional transportation infrastructure, including the bridges, tunnels, airports, and seaports, within the Port of New York and New Jersey...

, which also manages the two other major airports in the New York metropolitan area

New York metropolitan area

The New York metropolitan area, also known as Greater New York, or the Tri-State area, is the region that composes of New York City and the surrounding region...

, Newark Liberty International Airport

Newark Liberty International Airport

Newark Liberty International Airport , first named Newark Metropolitan Airport and later Newark International Airport, is an international airport within the city limits of both Newark and Elizabeth, New Jersey, United States...

and LaGuardia Airport

LaGuardia Airport

LaGuardia Airport is an airport located in the northern part of Queens County on Long Island in the City of New York. The airport is located on the waterfront of Flushing Bay and Bowery Bay, and borders the neighborhoods of Astoria, Jackson Heights and East Elmhurst. The airport was originally...

. With the three airports combined New York City has the world's second busiest city airport system

World's busiest city airport systems by passenger traffic

The world's busiest city airport systems by passenger traffic are measured by total number of passengers from all airports within a city or metropolitan area combined...

after London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

Construction

John F. Kennedy International Airport was originally known as Idlewild Airport after the Idlewild Golf Course that it displaced. The airport was originally envisioned as a reliever for LaGuardia Airport

LaGuardia Airport

, which had insufficient capacity in the late 1930s. Construction began in 1943 by local firms such as the Edenwald Group headed by the late Charles Follini Sr., a decorated former FDNY fireman; about $60 million was initially spent, but only 1000 acres (404.7 ha) of land on the site of the Idlewild golf course were earmarked for use.

The project was renamed Major General Alexander E. Anderson Airport in 1943 after a Queens resident who had commanded a Federalized National Guard unit in the southern United States and who had died in late 1942. In March 1948 the New York City Council

New York City Council

The New York City Council is the lawmaking body of the City of New York. It has 51 members from 51 council districts throughout the five boroughs. The Council serves as a check against the mayor in a "strong" mayor-council government model. The council monitors performance of city agencies and...

again changed the name to New York International Airport, Anderson Field, but the airport was commonly known as "Idlewild" until 1963.

The Port Authority leased the airport property from the City of New York in 1947 and maintains this lease as of the late 2000s. The first commercial flight at the airport was on July 1, 1948; the opening ceremony was attended by President Harry Truman. The Port Authority cancelled foreign airlines' permits to use LaGuardia, effectively forcing them to move to the new airport during the next couple of years.

The airport opened with six runways and a seventh under construction; runways 1L and 7L were held in reserve and never came into use as runways. Runway 31R (originally 8000 ft) is still in use; runway 31L (originally 9500 ft) opened soon after the rest of the airport and is still in use; runway 1R closed in the 1950s and runway 7R closed around 1966. Runway 4 (originally 8000 ft (2,438.4 m), now runway 4L) opened June 1949 and runway 4R was added ten years later.

The Avro Jetliner landed at Idlewild on April 18, 1950 and maybe in January 1951; a Caravelle prototype was the next jet airliner to land at Idlewild, on May 2, 1957. Later in 1957 the USSR sought approval for two Tu-104 flights carrying Soviet diplomats to Idlewild; the Port Authority did not allow them, saying noise tests had to be done first. (The Caravelle had been tested at Paris.)

The airport was renamed John F. Kennedy International Airport on December 24, 1963, one month after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.

Development

The Port Authority originally envisioned a single 55-gate terminal for the airport, but the major airlines of the time did not agree with this plan, arguing that the terminal would be far too small for future traffic. Architect Wallace Harrison

Wallace Harrison

Wallace Kirkman Harrison , was an American architect.-Career:Harrison started his professional career with the firm of Corbett, Harrison & MacMurray, participating in the construction of Rockefeller Center...

then designed a master plan under which each major airline at the airport would be given its own space to develop its own terminal design. This scheme made construction more practical, made terminals more navigable and introduced incentives for airlines to compete with each other for the best design. The revised master plan met airline approval in 1955.

The International Arrivals Building, or IAB, was the first new terminal project at the airport, opening in December 1957. Stretching nearly 700 meters parallel to runway 7R where Terminal 4 is now, it was designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill and featured "finger" piers constructed at right-angles to the main building. These allowed a greater number of aircraft to park, a major innovation at the time.
United Airlines
United Airlines
United Air Lines, Inc., is the world's largest airline with 86,852 employees United Air Lines, Inc., is the world's largest airline with 86,852 employees United Air Lines, Inc., is the world's largest airline with 86,852 employees (which includes the entire holding company United Continental...

opened Terminal 7 (later renumbered Terminal 9), a Skidmore design similar to that of the IAB, in October 1959. Eastern Airlines opened its Chester L. Churchill-designed Terminal 1 one month later.
American Airlines
American Airlines
American Airlines, Inc. is the world's fourth-largest airline in passenger miles transported and operating revenues. American Airlines is a subsidiary of the AMR Corporation and is headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas adjacent to its largest hub at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport...

opened its Terminal 8 in 1960. The terminal was designed by Kahn and Jacobs and became known for its 317 feet (96.6 m) stained glass
Stained glass
The term stained glass can refer to coloured glass as a material or to works produced from it. Throughout its thousand-year history, the term has been applied almost exclusively to the windows of churches and other significant buildings...

facade designed by Robert Sowers, which was the largest stained glass installation in the world until 1979. The facade was removed in 2007 as the terminal was demolished to make room for the new Terminal 8; American cited the prohibitive cost of removing the enormous installation.
Pan American World Airways
Pan American World Airways
Pan American World Airways, commonly known as Pan Am, was the principal and largest international air carrier in the United States from 1927 until its collapse on December 4, 1991...

opened the Worldport
Worldport (Pan Am)
Terminal 3 at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City, formerly known by the trademarked name Worldport, is an iconic airport terminal built by Pan American World Airways in 1960, now expected to be completely demolished by 2015....

(now Terminal 3) in 1960. It featured a large, elliptical roof suspended by 32 sets of radial posts and cables; the roof extended 114 feet (34.7 m) beyond the base of the terminal to cover the passenger loading area. It was one of the first airline terminals in the world to feature Jetway
Jetway
A jet bridge is an enclosed, movable connector which extends from an airport terminal gate to an airplane, allowing passengers to board and disembark without having to go outside...

s that connected to the terminal and that could be moved to provide an easy walkway for passengers from the terminal to a docked aircraft, rather than having to board the plane outside via airstairs, which descend from an aircraft, via truck-mounted mobile stairs, or via wheeled stairs.
Trans World Airlines
Trans World Airlines
Trans World Airlines was an American airline that existed from 1925 until it was bought out by and merged with American Airlines in 2001. It was a major domestic airline in the United States and the main U.S.-based competitor of Pan American World Airways on intercontinental routes from 1946...

opened the TWA Flight Center
TWA Flight Center
The TWA Flight Center or Trans World Flight Center, opened in 1962 as a standalone terminal at New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport .for Trans World Airlines...

in 1962, designed by Eero Saarinen
Eero Saarinen
Eero Saarinen was a Finnish American architect and industrial designer of the 20th century famous for varying his style according to the demands of the project: simple, sweeping, arching structural curves or machine-like rationalism.-Biography:Eero Saarinen shared the same birthday as his father,...

with a distinctive winged-bird shape. With the demise of TWA in 2001, the terminal remained vacant until 2005 when JetBlue Airways
JetBlue Airways
JetBlue Airways Corporation is an American low-cost airline. The company is headquartered in the Forest Hills neighborhood of the New York City borough of Queens. Its main base is John F. Kennedy International Airport, also in Queens....

and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey (PANYNJ)
Port Authority of New York and New Jersey
The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey is a bi-state port district, established in 1921 through an interstate compact, that runs most of the regional transportation infrastructure, including the bridges, tunnels, airports, and seaports, within the Port of New York and New Jersey...

financed the construction of a new 26-gate terminal partly encircling the Saarinen building. Called now Terminal 5 (or simply T5), the new terminal opened October 22, 2008. T5 is connected to the Saarinen central building through the original passenger departure-arrival tubes which connected the building to the outlying gates; the Port Authority is working on renovations of the remaining original Saarinen terminal, also known as the head house.
Northwest Airlines
Northwest Airlines
Northwest Airlines, Inc. was a major United States airline founded in 1926 and absorbed into Delta Air Lines by a merger approved on October 29, 2008, making Delta the largest airline in the world...

, Braniff International and Northeast Airlines
Northeast Airlines
Northeast Airlines was an American airline based in Boston, Massachusetts. They began as Boston-Maine Airways, which was founded as a Pan Am contract carrier on July 20, 1931, by the Boston and Maine Railroad and Maine Central Railroad offering service from Boston to Bangor via Portland...

opened a joint terminal in 1962.
National Airlines
National Airlines (NA)
National Airlines was an airline founded in 1934 and was headquartered on the grounds of Miami International Airport in unincorporated Miami-Dade County, Florida, United States near Miami.- History :...

opened the Sundrome
Sundrome
The Sundrome was the name for the terminal of National Airlines at John F. Kennedy International Airport. It was designed by I. M. Pei & Partners . Opened in 1970, it is now known as Terminal 6...

(now Terminal 6) in 1970. The terminal was designed by I.M.Pei
Pei Cobb Freed & Partners
Pei Cobb Freed & Partners is an architectural firm that was founded in 1955 by I. M. Pei as I. M. Pei & Associates, in 1966 called I. M. Pei & Partners, and received its current name and organization in 1989. The founders were I. M. Pei, Henry N. Cobb, and Eason H. Leonard. Pei and Leonard retired...

. It was unique for its use of all-glass mullion
Mullion
A mullion is a vertical structural element which divides adjacent window units. The primary purpose of the mullion is as a structural support to an arch or lintel above the window opening. Its secondary purpose may be as a rigid support to the glazing of the window...

s dividing the window sections, unprecedented at the time. In 2001, United Airlines
United Airlines
United Air Lines, Inc., is the world's largest airline with 86,852 employees United Air Lines, Inc., is the world's largest airline with 86,852 employees United Air Lines, Inc., is the world's largest airline with 86,852 employees (which includes the entire holding company United Continental...

planned to redevelop this terminal and the TWA Flight Center as a new United terminal, but the airline later reduced its operation at JFK and abandoned plans for a future JFK hub. Terminal 6 was used by JetBlue Airways
JetBlue Airways
JetBlue Airways Corporation is an American low-cost airline. The company is headquartered in the Forest Hills neighborhood of the New York City borough of Queens. Its main base is John F. Kennedy International Airport, also in Queens....

from 2001 through 2008 and vacated when JetBlue moved to Terminal 5.

JFK was designed to accommodate aircraft up to 300,000 lb gross weight and had to be significantly modified in the late 1960s to accommodate Boeing 747

Boeing 747

The Boeing 747 is a wide-body commercial airliner and cargo transport, often referred to by its original nickname, Jumbo Jet, or Queen of the Skies. It is among the world's most recognizable aircraft, and was the first wide-body ever produced...

s.

In 1951 Idlewild averaged 73 daily airline operations (takeoffs plus landings); the October 1951 Airline Guide shows nine domestic departures a day, on National and Northwest. (Some of TWA's transatlantic flights had domestic segments but carried no domestic passengers.) When Newark closed in February 1952 much of its traffic moved to Idlewild, which averaged 242 daily airline operations in 1952. L-1049 Constellations and DC-7s appeared in 1951-53 and didn't use LGA for their first several years, bringing more traffic to IDL. The April 1957 OAG shows two departures a week on Aerolineas Argentinas, 24 on Air France, 164 American, 6 Avianca, 42 BOAC and BWIA, 35 Capital, 7 Cubana, 252 Eastern, 2 El Al, 2 Iberia, 7 Icelandic, 17 KLM, 2 LAI, 6 LAV, 9 Lufthansa, 156 National, 75 Northwest, 131 Pan American, 9 Sabena, 26 SAS, 6 Swissair, 95 Trans-Canada, 115 TWA, 90 United and 3 Varig. (For most airlines the counts are for the beginning of April, but some transatlantic airlines only show their expanded schedules starting later in the month.)

Airlines began scheduling jets into Idlewild in 1958-59; LaGuardia didn't get jet airliners until 1964, so Idlewild soon became New York's busiest airline airport. In 1962-67 it had more airline takeoffs and landings than LGA and EWR combined and was the second-busiest airline airport in the country, peaking at 403,981 airline operations in 1967. During 1960-66 LaGuardia got a new terminal and longer runways, and by the middle 1970s the two airports had roughly equal passenger airline traffic (by flight count, not passenger count). (Until the 1980s Newark was always third place, except during LGA's reconstruction.) The supersonic Concorde

Concorde

Aérospatiale-BAC Concorde was a turbojet-powered supersonic passenger airliner, a supersonic transport . It was a product of an Anglo-French government treaty, combining the manufacturing efforts of Aérospatiale and the British Aircraft Corporation...

, operated by Air France

Air France

Air France , stylised as AIRFRANCE, is the French flag carrier headquartered in Tremblay-en-France, , and is one of the world's largest airlines. It is a subsidiary of the Air France-KLM Group and a founding member of the SkyTeam global airline alliance...

and British Airways

British Airways

British Airways is the flag carrier airline of the United Kingdom, based in Waterside, near its main hub at London Heathrow Airport. British Airways is the largest airline in the UK based on fleet size, international flights and international destinations...

, provided scheduled trans-Atlantic

Transatlantic flight

Transatlantic flight is the flight of an aircraft across the Atlantic Ocean. A transatlantic flight may proceed east-to-west, originating in Europe or Africa and terminating in North America or South America, or it may go in the reverse direction, west-to-east...

supersonic

Supersonic

Supersonic speed is a rate of travel of an object that exceeds the speed of sound . For objects traveling in dry air of a temperature of 20 °C this speed is approximately 343 m/s, 1,125 ft/s, 768 mph or 1,235 km/h. Speeds greater than five times the speed of sound are often...

service to JFK from November 22, 1977 until October 24, 2003, when Concorde was retired by both carriers. JFK had the most Concorde operations annually of any airport in the world.

JFK is currently undergoing a $10.3 billion redevelopment. The airport began construction of the AirTrain JFK

AirTrain JFK

AirTrain JFK is a 3-line, -long people mover system and elevated railway in New York City providing service to John F. Kennedy International Airport...

rapid transit system in 1998; completed in December 2003, the rail network links each airport terminal to New York City subways and regional commuter trains at Howard Beach and Jamaica, Queens. The airport opened a new Terminal 1 on May 28, 1998, and the $1.4 billion replacement for the International Arrivals Building, Terminal 4, opened on May 24, 2001. Construction has been completed on JetBlue Airways

JetBlue Airways

's new Terminal 5, which incorporates the historic landmark TWA FlightCenter terminal, while Terminals 8 and 9 were recently demolished and rebuilt as a unified Terminal 8 for the American Airlines

American Airlines

hub. In 2008 the Port Authority Board of Commissioners approved a $20 million planning study for the much needed redevelopment of Terminals 2 and 3, the hub of Delta Air Lines

Delta Air Lines

.

On March 19, 2007, JFK became the first airport in the United States to receive the Airbus A380

Airbus A380

The Airbus A380 is a double-deck, wide-body, four-engine jet airliner manufactured by the European corporation Airbus, a subsidiary of EADS. It is the largest passenger airliner in the world. Due to its size, many airports had to modify and improve facilities to accommodate it...

with passengers aboard. The route-proving flight with more than 500 passengers was operated jointly by Lufthansa and Airbus and arrived at Terminal 1. On August 1, 2008, JFK received the first regularly scheduled commercial A380 flight to the United States, operated by Emirates

Emirates Airline

Emirates is the airline based in the Emirate of Dubai part of the United Arab Emirates . Based at Dubai International Airport it is the largest airline in the Middle East, operating over 2,400 flights per week, from its hub at Terminal 3, to 111 cities in 62 countries across six continents...

on its New York–Dubai route using Terminal 4. This service was suspended in 2009, due to poor passenger demand. Re-introduced in November 2010, Emirates operate their A380 aircraft to JFK.

Runways and operational infrastructure

Four runways (two pairs of parallel runways) surround the airport's central terminal area.

Number	Length	Width	ILS Instrument Landing System An instrument landing system is a ground-based instrument approach system that provides precision guidance to an aircraft approaching and landing on a runway, using a combination of radio signals and, in many cases, high-intensity lighting arrays to enable a safe landing during instrument...	Notes
13R-31L	14572 feet (4,441.5 m)	200 feet (61 m)	Cat. I (31L)	Second-longest commercial runway in North America (the longest is a 16000 feet (4,876.8 m) runway at Denver International Airport Denver International Airport Denver International Airport , often referred to as DIA, is an airport in Denver, Colorado. By land size, at , it is the largest international airport in the United States, and the third largest international airport in the world after King Fahd International Airport and Montréal-Mirabel... ). Adjacent to Terminals 1, 2 and 3. Handled approximately one half of the airport's scheduled departures. It was a backup runway for space shuttle Space Shuttle The Space Shuttle was a manned orbital rocket and spacecraft system operated by NASA on 135 missions from 1981 to 2011. The system combined rocket launch, orbital spacecraft, and re-entry spaceplane with modular add-ons... missions. It was closed on March 1, 2010 for four months. The reconstruction of the runway widened it from 150 feet (45.7 m) to 200 feet (61 m) with a concrete base instead of asphalt. It reopened on June 29, 2010.
4R-22L	8400 feet (2,560.3 m)	200 feet (61 m)	Cat. III (both directions)	Equipped at both ends with Approach Lighting System Approach Lighting System An approach lighting system, or ALS, is a lighting system installed on the approach end of an airport runway and consisting of a series of lightbars, strobe lights, or a combination of the two that extends outward from the runway end... s (ALS) with sequenced flashers, and touchdown zone (TDZ) lighting. The first Engineered Materials Arresting System (EMAS) in North America was installed at the northeast end of the runway in 1996. The bed consists of cellular cement material, which can safely decelerate and stop an aircraft that overruns the runway. The arrestor bed concept was originated and developed by the Port Authority and installed at JFK Airport as a joint research and development project with the FAA and industry.
4L-22R	11351 feet (3,459.8 m)	150 feet (45.7 m)	Cat. I (both directions)	Adjacent to Terminals 4 and 5. Both ends allow instrument landings down to three-quarters of a mile visibility. Takeoffs can be conducted with one-eighth of a mile visibility.
13L-31R	10000 feet (3,048 m)	150 feet (45.7 m)	Cat. II (13L); Cat. I (31R)	Equipped at both ends with ILS and ALS systems. Runway 13L has two additional visual aids for landing aircraft, a Visual Approach Slope Indicator System (VASI) and a Lead-In Lighting System (LDIN). The ILS on 13L, along with TDZ lighting, allows landings down to half a mile visibility. Takeoffs can be made with visibility of one-eighth of a mile.

JFK has over 25 miles (40.2 km) of taxiways to move aircraft in and around the airfield. The standard width of these taxiways is 75 feet (22.9 m), with 25 feet (7.6 m) heavy-duty shoulders and 25 feet (7.6 m) erosion control pavements on each side. The taxiways have centerline lights and are generally of asphalt concrete composition 15 to 18 inches (457.2 mm) thick. An illuminated sign system provides directional information for taxiing aircraft.

The Air Traffic Control

Air traffic control

Air traffic control is a service provided by ground-based controllers who direct aircraft on the ground and in the air. The primary purpose of ATC systems worldwide is to separate aircraft to prevent collisions, to organize and expedite the flow of traffic, and to provide information and other...

Tower, designed by Pei Cobb Freed & Partners

Pei Cobb Freed & Partners

Pei Cobb Freed & Partners is an architectural firm that was founded in 1955 by I. M. Pei as I. M. Pei & Associates, in 1966 called I. M. Pei & Partners, and received its current name and organization in 1989. The founders were I. M. Pei, Henry N. Cobb, and Eason H. Leonard. Pei and Leonard retired...

and constructed on the ramp-side of Terminal 4, began full FAA operations in October 1994. An Airport Surface Detection Equipment (ASDE) radar unit sits atop the tower. A gas-fired electric cogeneration plant generates electricity for the airport, with an output of about 90 megawatts. It uses thermal energy from the capture of waste heat to heat and cool all of the passenger terminals and other facilities in the central terminal area.

Aircraft service facilities include seven aircraft hangars, an engine overhaul building, a 32 million USgals (121,133.2 m³) aircraft fuel storage facility, and a truck garage.

Terminals

JFK has eight terminals (nine until the early 2000s) containing 151 gates, seven of which are currently in use (Terminals 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, and 8). Terminal 3 will be demolished after the terminal 4 expansion is completed. Terminal 6 is being demolished following the completion of terminal 5 expansion.

The terminal buildings are arranged in a deformed U-shaped wavy pattern around a central area containing parking, hotels, a power plant, and other airport facilities. The terminals are connected by the AirTrain

AirTrain JFK

AirTrain JFK is a 3-line, -long people mover system and elevated railway in New York City providing service to John F. Kennedy International Airport...

system and access roads. Wayfinding signage throughout the terminals was designed by Paul Mijksenaar

Paul Mijksenaar

Paul Mijksenaar is a designer of visual information and is founder and director of the international design bureau Mijksenaar, based in Amsterdam and New York. Mijksenaar is a specialist in creating visual information systems, such as wayfinding signage for railway stations and airports including...

. A 2006 survey by J.D. Power and Associates

J.D. Power and Associates

J.D. Power and Associates is a global marketing information services firm founded in 1968 by James David Power III. The firm conducts surveys of customer satisfaction, product quality, and buyer behavior for industries ranging from cars to marketing and advertising firms. The firm is best known for...

in conjunction with Aviation Week
Aviation Week & Space Technology
Aviation Week & Space Technology, often abbreviated Aviation Week or AW&ST, is a weekly magazine owned and published by McGraw-Hill...

found JFK ranked second in overall traveller satisfaction among large airports in the United States, behind McCarran International Airport

McCarran International Airport

McCarran International Airport is the principal commercial airport serving Las Vegas and Clark County, Nevada, United States. The airport is located five miles south of the central business district of Las Vegas, in the unincorporated area of Paradise in Clark County. It covers an area of and...

which serves the Las Vegas metropolitan area

Las Vegas metropolitan area

The Las Vegas Valley is the heart of the Las Vegas-Paradise, NV MSA also known as the Las Vegas–Paradise–Henderson MSA which includes all of Clark County, Nevada, and is a metropolitan area in the southern part of the U.S. state of Nevada. The Valley is defined by the Las Vegas Valley landform, a ...

Terminal 1

The original Terminal 1, built for Eastern Airlines, was demolished circa 1995.

The current Terminal 1 was opened in 1998, 50 years after the opening of JFK, at the direction of the Terminal One Group, a consortium of four key operating carriers: Air France

Air France

, Japan Airlines

Japan Airlines

is an airline headquartered in Shinagawa, Tokyo, Japan. It is the flag carrier of Japan and its main hubs are Tokyo's Narita International Airport and Tokyo International Airport , as well as Nagoya's Chūbu Centrair International Airport and Osaka's Kansai International Airport...

, Korean Air

Korean Air

Korean Air Lines Co., Ltd. , operating as Korean Air, is both the flag carrier and the largest airline of South Korea, with global headquarters located in Seoul, South Korea. Korean Air's international passenger division and related subsidiary cargo division together serve 130 cities in 45...

and Lufthansa

Lufthansa

Deutsche Lufthansa AG is the flag carrier of Germany and the largest airline in Europe in terms of overall passengers carried. The name of the company is derived from Luft , and Hansa .The airline is the world's fourth-largest airline in terms of overall passengers carried, operating...

. This partnership was founded after the four airlines reached agreement that existing international carrier facilities were inadequate for their needs. Terminal 1 has the capability to handle Airbus A380

Airbus A380

aircraft from Air France on the route from Paris Charles De Gaulle, Lufthansa on the route from Frankfurt Airport

Frankfurt Airport

Frankfurt Airport may refer to:Airports of Frankfurt, Germany:*Frankfurt Airport , the largest airport in Germany*Frankfurt Egelsbach Airport, a general aviation airport*Frankfurt-Hahn Airport , a converted U.S...

and Korean Air on the route from Incheon Airport; it is one of two terminals (along with Terminal 4) capable to carry the superjumbo aircraft. Terminal 1 has 11 gates.

Terminal 2

Terminal 2 was opened in 1962 as the home of Northeast Airlines

Northeast Airlines

Northeast Airlines was an American airline based in Boston, Massachusetts. They began as Boston-Maine Airways, which was founded as a Pan Am contract carrier on July 20, 1931, by the Boston and Maine Railroad and Maine Central Railroad offering service from Boston to Bangor via Portland...

, Braniff and Northwest Airlines

Northwest Airlines

Northwest Airlines, Inc. was a major United States airline founded in 1926 and absorbed into Delta Air Lines by a merger approved on October 29, 2008, making Delta the largest airline in the world...

. After the demise of Northeast Airlines and Braniff the building was taken over by Pan American World Airways and subsequently by Delta Air Lines. It has 7 jetway-equipped gates (20–22, 26–29) and 17 stands for Delta Connection

Delta Connection

Delta Connection is the name under which a number of individually owned regional airlines and one wholly owned regional carrier operate short and medium haul routes in association with Delta Air Lines Inc...

carriers (23A-H, 23J, 25K-N, 25P-S). Delta is currently in the progress of connecting T2 with T4. It is also currently moving its international operations into T4 and demolishing T3. The project was approved by the Port Authority on August 5, 2010.

Terminal 3

Terminal 3 was built as the Worldport

Worldport (Pan Am)

Terminal 3 at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City, formerly known by the trademarked name Worldport, is an iconic airport terminal built by Pan American World Airways in 1960, now expected to be completely demolished by 2015....

in 1960 for Pan American, and substantially expanded for the introduction of the 747 in 1970. Delta Air Lines currently uses the entire terminal, and has a connector to Terminal 2, its other terminal at JFK. Terminal 3 has 16 jetway equipped gates: 1–10, 12, 14–18 with two hardstand gates (Gate 11) and a helipad on Taxiway 'KK'.

A 1.2 billion dollar project is under construction which would expand T4 into which Delta moved its current T3 operations, demolishing T3 following Terminal 4's expansion in 2013 to provide additional aircraft parking stands to speed up ground handling, and construct a connector between T2 and T4 for Delta transfers. T3 would be entirely demolished in 2015, including the 'flying saucer' roof, after the T4 expansion is completed.

Terminal 4

Terminal 4, the international terminal, is able to handle the Airbus A380

Airbus A380

and was developed by LCOR, Inc and is managed by the Schiphol Group

Schiphol Group

Schiphol Group is a Dutch company with its head office on the grounds of Amsterdam Airport Schiphol in Haarlemmermeer, Netherlands.It is 100% shareholder of Amsterdam Airport Schiphol, Rotterdam The Hague Airport, and Lelystad Airport. It also owns 51% of Eindhoven Airport, 19% of Brisbane Airport...

. It was the first airport terminal in the United States to be managed by a foreign airport operator. Terminal 4 is the major gateway for international arrivals at JFK. Opened in 2001, the new 1500000 square feet (139,354.6 m²) building was built at a cost of $1.4 billion and replaced JFK's old International Arrivals Building, or simply IAB, which opened in 1957.
Terminal 4 has 17 gates in two concourses: A2-A7, B20, B22-B31. The number of gates will be expanded for all of Delta Air Lines international flights to be operated from Terminal 4 in the future. A photo was released which shows additional expansion of T4 to include "regional jet" gates, although this phase has not yet been officially confirmed.

Concourse

Concourse

A concourse is a place where pathways or roads meet, such as in a hotel, a convention center, a railway station, an airport terminal, a hall, or other space.-Examples:Examples of concourses include:* Meeting halls* Universities* Railway stations...

A has six gates, numbered A2-A7. Concourse B has eleven gates, numbered B20-B31, with the exclusion of B21. As Terminal 4 was built during the construction of the AirTrain, the AirTrain station was built inside the terminal building. Other AirTrain stations are built across from terminal buildings. Terminal 4’s expansive shopping mall offers a wide range of retail options before security so passengers and their families can enjoy shopping and dining together. Four chapels are located on the fourth floor (departure level). Delta Air Lines has also moved its operations to T4, as it expands operations beyond T2.

The terminal is currently being expanded, including nine new international gates, additional baggage space, customs and border-security facilities.

Terminal 5

Terminal 5 is the new home of JetBlue Airways

JetBlue Airways

and beginning June 5, 2012, Hawaiian Airlines

Hawaiian Airlines

Hawaiian Airlines, Inc. is a major airline of the United States. It is the largest airline based in the State of Hawai'i, and is the 11th largest commercial airline in the country. Based in Honolulu CDP, City and County of Honolulu, the airline operates its main hub at Honolulu International...

will utilize Terminal 5 for their flights to Honolulu. The recently completed terminal is known for its many gift shops and gourmet restaurants, including a steak house and a sushi restaurant. It sits behind the preserved Eero Saarinen

Eero Saarinen

Eero Saarinen was a Finnish American architect and industrial designer of the 20th century famous for varying his style according to the demands of the project: simple, sweeping, arching structural curves or machine-like rationalism.-Biography:Eero Saarinen shared the same birthday as his father,...

-designed terminal originally known as the TWA Flight Center

TWA Flight Center

The TWA Flight Center or Trans World Flight Center, opened in 1962 as a standalone terminal at New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport .for Trans World Airlines...

, which is now connected to the new structure and is considered part of T5. The Saarinen building is currently closed for refurbishment; it is unclear when the building will re-open or what purpose it will have. The active T5 building has 26 gates: 1–12, 14–27.

Terminal 6

Terminal 6 had 14 gates. Designed by I. M. Pei

I. M. Pei

Ieoh Ming Pei , commonly known as I. M. Pei, is a Chinese American architect, often called a master of modern architecture. Born in Canton, China and raised in Hong Kong and Shanghai, Pei drew inspiration at an early age from the gardens at Suzhou...

, it was built in 1970 as the National Airlines

National Airlines (NA)

Sundrome

The Sundrome was the name for the terminal of National Airlines at John F. Kennedy International Airport. It was designed by I. M. Pei & Partners . Opened in 1970, it is now known as Terminal 6...

. Later, Trans World Airlines

Trans World Airlines

used it. On June 1, 2006, JetBlue Airways

JetBlue Airways

began service from Terminal 6, opening a temporary complex that increased its capacity by adding seven gates. After JetBlue vacated the terminal, these were demolished. The original building has been demolished to allow for greater expansion at the airport.

Terminal 7

Terminal 7 was built for BOAC

British Overseas Airways Corporation

The British Overseas Airways Corporation was the British state airline from 1939 until 1946 and the long-haul British state airline from 1946 to 1974. The company started life with a merger between Imperial Airways Ltd. and British Airways Ltd...

and Air Canada

Air Canada

Air Canada is the flag carrier and largest airline of Canada. The airline, founded in 1936, provides scheduled and charter air transport for passengers and cargo to 178 destinations worldwide. It is the world's tenth largest passenger airline by number of destinations, and the airline is a...

in the early 1970s. It is currently owned and operated by British Airways

British Airways

. This terminal was special among all airport terminals in the world as it was the only terminal owned and operated by a foreign carrier on US soil ever, anywhere. A variety of Oneworld

Oneworld

Oneworld , branded as oneworld, is one of the world's three largest global airline alliances with its central management team, oneworld Management Company, based in New York City, New York, USA. Oneworld was founded in 1999 by American Airlines, British Airways, Canadian Airlines, Cathay Pacific...

alliance carriers operate out of Terminal 7 at this time, including British Airways, Cathay Pacific

Cathay Pacific

Cathay Pacific is the flag carrier of Hong Kong, with its head office and main hub located at Hong Kong International Airport, although the airline's registered office is on the 33rd floor of One Pacific Place...

, Iberia (now merged with British Airways) and Qantas

Qantas

Qantas Airways Limited is the flag carrier of Australia. The name was originally "QANTAS", an initialism for "Queensland and Northern Territory Aerial Services". Nicknamed "The Flying Kangaroo", the airline is based in Sydney, with its main hub at Sydney Airport...

. Star Alliance

Star Alliance

Star Alliance is the world's first and largest airline alliance, headquartered in Frankfurt am Main, Germany . The alliance was founded in 1997 by five of the world's leading airlines: Air Canada, Lufthansa, Scandinavian Airlines, Thai Airways International and United Airlines...

carriers United Airlines

United Airlines

United Air Lines, Inc., is the world's largest airline with 86,852 employees United Air Lines, Inc., is the world's largest airline with 86,852 employees United Air Lines, Inc., is the world's largest airline with 86,852 employees (which includes the entire holding company United Continental...

, US Airways

US Airways

US Airways, Inc. is a major airline based in the U.S. city of Tempe, Arizona. The airline is an operating unit of US Airways Group and is the sixth largest airline by traffic and eighth largest by market value in the country....

and ANA

All Nippon Airways

, also known as or ANA, is one of the largest airlines in Japan. It is headquartered at the Shiodome City Center in the Shiodome area in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. It operates services to 49 destinations in Japan and 35 international routes and employed over 14,000 employees as of May 2009...

also use the terminal. In 1997, the Port Authority entered an agreement with British Airways to expand the terminal. The renovated terminal has 12 gates. On May 21, 2008, British Airways announced that it would undertake a $30 million, 18-month-long project to enhance its premium ground facilities at the terminal. British Airways is currently evaluating the future of Terminal 7, as its lease with the Port Authority ends in 2015.
Management has indicated a desire to relocate British Airways/Iberia's operations to a new pier located east and connected to Terminal 8, pending approval of an alliance with American Airlines.

Terminal 8

In 1999, American Airlines began an eight-year program to build the largest passenger terminal at JFK, designed to replace both Terminal 8 and Terminal 9. The new terminal was built in four phases, which involved the construction of a new midfield concourse, demolition of the old Terminal 9, and finally demolition of the old Terminal 8. It opened in stages between 2005 and had its "official" opening in August 2007. It is a major Oneworld

Oneworld

hub, and American Airlines is the major Oneworld carrier at Terminal 8. In addition to operations at Terminal 7, some Oneworld airlines including Finnair

Finnair

Finnair Plc is the flag carrier and largest airline of Finland, with its headquarters on the grounds of Helsinki Airport in Vantaa, Finland, and its main hub at Helsinki Airport. Finnair and its subsidiaries dominate both the domestic and international air travel markets in Finland. The largest...

operate out of Terminal 8. Qatar Airways

Qatar Airways

Qatar Airways Company Q.C.S.C. , operating as Qatar Airways, is the flag carrier of Qatar. Headquartered in the Qatar Airways Tower in Doha, it operates a hub-and-spoke network, linking over 100 international destinations from its base in Doha, using a fleet of over 100 aircraft...

also operates its flights out of Terminal 8.

The terminal is twice the size of Madison Square Garden

Madison Square Garden

Madison Square Garden, often abbreviated as MSG and known colloquially as The Garden, is a multi-purpose indoor arena in the New York City borough of Manhattan and located at 8th Avenue, between 31st and 33rd Streets, situated on top of Pennsylvania Station.Opened on February 11, 1968, it is the...

. It offers dozens of retail and food outlets, 84 ticket counters, 44 self-service kiosks, 10 security checkpoint lanes and a U.S. Customs and Border Protection facility that can process more than 1,600 people an hour. Terminal 8 has an annual capacity of 12.8M passengers. It has two American Airlines Admirals Clubs and a Flagship Lounge for premium class passengers.

Terminal 8 has 29 gates: 12 gates in Concourse B (1–8, 10, 12, 14, and 16) and 17 gates in Concourse C (31–47). Gate 31 is further subdivided into 5 regional service gates for small jets, 31A-31E. Gate 32 is subdivided into 4 regional service gates for small jets, 32F-32I. The total number of jetbridges is, therefore, 36. Passenger access to Concourse C is by an underground tunnel which includes moving walkways. Of interest are a history of American Airlines logos on display between the security checkpoint and the concourses.

Airlines and destinations

International arrivals can be handled at any terminal except Terminals 2 and 5.

Notes:
EVA Air Flights to Taipei-Taoyuan Airport makes an intermediate stop at Anchorage; however EVA Air does not have traffic rights to carry passengers solely between New York and Anchorage.

Qantas flights to Sydney make an intermediate stop at Los Angeles; however Qantas does not have traffic rights to carry passengers solely between New York and Los Angeles. Passengers may also transfer onto flights to Melbourne, Brisbane and Auckland.

Other facilities

North American Airlines

North American Airlines, Inc. is an American airline with its headquarters in Building 141 on the grounds of John F. Kennedy International Airport in Jamaica, Queens, New York City, USA. Prior to May 2008, it operated scheduled international services from the USA to Africa and Guyana. Today, it...

has its headquarters in Building 141 along Federal Circle, on the airport property. North American Airlines is one of the building's tenants; the building also has Globe Ground and VOA as tenants and Port Authority storage. Building 141 was originally a Port Authority of New York and New Jersey

Port Authority of New York and New Jersey

(PANYNJ) administration building. In the 1990s it served as the PANYNJ police headquarters. In 2000 an $800,000, 5000 square foot annex of the building opened to serve students of Aviation High School in Long Island City. In 2003 Building 141 was dedicated in honor of Morris Sloane, a PANYNJ aviation employee.

When Tower Air

Tower Air

Tower Air was a certificated FAR 121 schedule and charter U.S. airline that operated from 1983 until 2000, when the company declared bankruptcy and was liquidated. Scheduled flights were initially offered over a New York - Brussels - Tel Aviv route in addition to charter flights to Athens,...

existed, its head offices were in Building 178 and later in Hangar 17 at JFK Airport.

Information services

In the immediate vicinity of the airport, parking and other information can be obtained by tuning to a highway advisory radio

Highway advisory radio

Travelers Information Radio Stations , are sometimes also called Highway Advisory Radio Stations by Departments of Transportation in the United States. These radio stations are licensed low-power AM radio stations set up by local transport departments to provide bulletins to motorists and other...

station at 1630 AM

AM broadcasting

AM broadcasting is the process of radio broadcasting using amplitude modulation. AM was the first method of impressing sound on a radio signal and is still widely used today. Commercial and public AM broadcasting is carried out in the medium wave band world wide, and on long wave and short wave...

. A second station at 1700 AM provides information on traffic concerns for drivers leaving the airport.

Kennedy Airport, along with LaGuardia and Newark airports, uses a uniform style of signage throughout the airport properties. Yellow signs direct passengers to airline gates, ticketing and other flight services; green signs direct passengers to ground transportation services, and black signs lead to restrooms, telephones and other passenger amenities.

New York City

New York City

traffic reporter Bernie Wagenblast

Bernie Wagenblast

Bernhard Robert Wagenblast is the founder and editor of the Transportation Communications Newsletter , an e-mail publication with over 7,000 subscribers as of January 2008 which is distributed via Yahoo Groups and Google Groups Monday through Friday...

provides the voice for the airport's radio stations and the messages heard on board AirTrain JFK

AirTrain JFK

AirTrain JFK is a 3-line, -long people mover system and elevated railway in New York City providing service to John F. Kennedy International Airport...

and in its stations.

Traffic and statistics

In 2010, JFK handled 46,514,154 passengers.

The airport contributes about $30.1 billion in economic activity to the New York City region, generating 229,000 jobs and about $9.8 billion in wages and salaries. About 35,000 people are employed at the airport.

In 2010, the five carriers with the largest percentage of domestic passengers flying into, out of, or through JFK are as follows:

JetBlue Airways
JetBlue Airways
JetBlue Airways Corporation is an American low-cost airline. The company is headquartered in the Forest Hills neighborhood of the New York City borough of Queens. Its main base is John F. Kennedy International Airport, also in Queens....

9,561,000 passengers (41.25%)
Delta Air Lines
Delta Air Lines
Delta Air Lines, Inc. is a major airline based in the United States and headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia. The airline operates an extensive domestic and international network serving all continents except Antarctica. Delta and its subsidiaries operate over 4,000 flights every day...

* 5,018,000 passengers (21.65%)
American Airlines
American Airlines
American Airlines, Inc. is the world's fourth-largest airline in passenger miles transported and operating revenues. American Airlines is a subsidiary of the AMR Corporation and is headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas adjacent to its largest hub at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport...

* 3,518,000 (15.18%)
Comair
Comair
Comair is a wholly owned subsidiary of Delta Air Lines headquartered on the grounds of Cincinnati-Northern Kentucky International Airport in unincorporated Boone County, Kentucky, United States, west of Erlanger, and south of Cincinnati, Ohio...

1,317,000 (5.68%)
United Airlines
United Airlines
United Air Lines, Inc., is the world's largest airline with 86,852 employees United Air Lines, Inc., is the world's largest airline with 86,852 employees United Air Lines, Inc., is the world's largest airline with 86,852 employees (which includes the entire holding company United Continental...

888,000 (3.83%)

Note that the totals for Delta do not include those of the carriers flying as Delta Connection; likewise American Eagle is not included in the total for American.

Nearly 100 airlines from over 50 countries operate regularly scheduled flights from JFK. The JFK-London Heathrow route is the leading U.S. international airport pair with over 2.9 million passengers in 2008. Domestic travel also accounts for a large share of airport traffic, particularly transcontinental and Florida

Florida

Florida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...

service.

Busiest International Routes from JFK (2009)
Rank	Airport	Passengers	Top Carriers
1	London-Heathrow, United Kingdom London Heathrow Airport London Heathrow Airport or Heathrow , in the London Borough of Hillingdon, is the busiest airport in the United Kingdom and the third busiest airport in the world in terms of total passenger traffic, handling more international passengers than any other airport around the globe...	2,969,530	American, British Airways, Delta, Kuwait Airways, Virgin Atlantic
2	Paris-Charles de Gaulle, France	1,196,259	Air France, American, Delta, XL Airways France
3	Frankfurt, Germany Frankfurt Airport Frankfurt Airport may refer to:Airports of Frankfurt, Germany:Frankfurt Airport , the largest airport in GermanyFrankfurt Egelsbach Airport, a general aviation airport*Frankfurt-Hahn Airport , a converted U.S...	671,527	Delta, Lufthansa, Singapore Airlines
5	Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic Las Américas International Airport -Cargo airlines:-Accidents and incidents:*On February 15, 1970, a Dominicana de Aviación DC-9 flying to Luis Muñoz Marín International Airport in San Juan, Puerto Rico, crashed, killing all 102 persons on board ....	624,141	American, Delta, JetBlue
6	Tokyo-Narita, Japan Narita International Airport is an international airport serving the Greater Tokyo Area of Japan. It is located east of Tokyo Station and east-southeast of Narita Station in the city of Narita, and the adjacent town of Shibayama....	561,227	American, ANA, Delta, JAL
7	Istanbul Ataturk Airport	548,402	Delta, Turkish Airlines
8	Tel Aviv, Israel Ben Gurion International Airport Ben Gurion International Airport , also referred to by its Hebrew acronym Natbag , is the largest and busiest international airport in Israel, handling 12,160,339 passengers in 2010...	530,810	Delta, El Al
9	Rome-Fiumicino, Italy	520,152	Alitalia, American, Delta
10	Seoul-Incheon, South Korea Incheon International Airport Incheon International Airport is the largest airport in South Korea, the primary airport serving the Seoul national capital area, and one of the largest and busiest airports in the world...	493,496	Asiana, Korean Air
11	Amsterdam, Netherlands	483,916	Delta, KLM
11	Singapore Singapore Changi Airport Singapore Changi Airport , Changi International Airport, or simply Changi Airport, is the main airport in Singapore. A major aviation hub in Southeast Asia, it is about north-east from the commercial centre in Changi, on a site....	462,916	Singapore Airlines
12	Milan Malpensa Airport	455,310	Alitalia, American, Delta

Busiest Domestic Routes from JFK (September 2010 - August 2011)
Rank	Airport	Passengers	Top Carriers
1	Los Angeles, California Los Angeles International Airport Los Angeles International Airport is the primary airport serving the Greater Los Angeles Area, the second-most populated metropolitan area in the United States. It is most often referred to by its IATA airport code LAX, with the letters pronounced individually...	1,497,000	American, Delta, JetBlue, United, Virgin America
2	San Francisco, California San Francisco International Airport San Francisco International Airport is a major international airport located south of downtown San Francisco, California, United States, near the cities of Millbrae and San Bruno in unincorporated San Mateo County. It is often referred to as SFO...	1,007,000	American, Delta, JetBlue, United, Virgin America
3	Orlando, Florida Orlando International Airport Orlando International Airport is a major international airport located southeast of the central business district of Orlando. It is the second busiest airport in Florida, after Miami International Airport...	730,000	American, Delta, JetBlue
4	Miami, Florida Miami International Airport Miami International Airport , also known as MIA and historically Wilcox Field, is the primary airport serving the South Florida area...	599,000	American, Delta
5	Fort Lauderdale, Florida Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport Fort Lauderdale – Hollywood International Airport is an international commercial airport located in unincorporated Broward County, Florida, three miles southwest of the central business district of Fort Lauderdale...	564,000	American, Delta, JetBlue
6	Las Vegas, Nevada	533,000	American, Delta, JetBlue, Virgin America
7	San Juan, Puerto Rico Luis Muñoz Marín International Airport Luis Muñoz Marín International Airport is a joint civil-military public airport located in Carolina, Puerto Rico, three miles southeast of San Juan. Over 4 million passengers board a plane at the airport per year according to FAA reports . It is owned and managed by the Puerto Rico Ports...	506,000	American, Delta, JetBlue
8	Boston, Massachusetts	399,000	American, Delta, JetBlue, United
9	Buffalo, New York	340,000	JetBlue
10	Atlanta, Georgia	305,000	Delta

Air freight

JFK is the nation’s busiest international air freight gateway by value of shipments and the second busiest overall by value including all air, land and sea U.S. freight gateways. Over 21% of all U.S. international air freight by value and 11% by tonnage moved through JFK in 2003.

The JFK air cargo complex is a Foreign Trade Zone

Foreign trade zone

A foreign-trade zone in the United States is a geographical area, in United States Ports of Entry Ports of Entry, where commercial merchandise, both domestic and foreign receives the same Customs treatment it would if it were outside the commerce of the United States...

which legally lies outside the customs area

Customs area

A customs area is an area designated for storage of commercial goods that have not yet cleared customs. It is surrounded by a customs border...

of the United States. JFK is a major hub for air cargo between the United States and Europe. London, Brussels and Frankfurt are JFK's three top trade routes. The European airports are mostly a link in a global supply chain, however. The top destination markets for cargo flying out of JFK in 2003 were Tokyo, Seoul and London. Similarly, the top origin markets for imports at JFK were Seoul, Hong Kong, and Taipei, with London taking the fourth spot.

Nearly 100 cargo air carriers operate out of JFK, among them:
Air China Cargo

Air China Cargo

Air China Cargo Co., Ltd. is a cargo airline based in Beijing, China. It is an all-cargo subsidiary of Air China and operates services to 36 cities in 27 countries around the world. Its main base is Beijing Capital International Airport.- History :...

, ABX Air

ABX Air

ABX Air, Inc., formerly Airborne Express, is a cargo airline headquartered at Wilmington Air Park in unincorporated Clinton County, Ohio, United States, near the City of Wilmington. ABX Air operates scheduled, ad hoc charter and ACMI freight services. It also provides flight support services and...

, Asiana, Atlas Air

Atlas Air

Atlas Air, Inc. is an American cargo airline based in Purchase, Harrison, New York. It operates scheduled freight flights on a wet lease basis for some of the world's leading airlines, flying to 101 cities in 46 countries. Its crew bases include: Miami International Airport, New York's John F...

, CAL Cargo Air Lines

CAL Cargo Air Lines

CAL Cargo Air Lines is a cargo airline based in Tel Aviv, Israel which operates scheduled cargo flights carrying perishable goods and general cargo to Europe and the rest of the world. Its main base is Ben Gurion International Airport, Tel Aviv, and it has a hub at Liège Airport...

, Cargolux

Cargolux

Cargolux Airlines International S.A., trading as Cargolux, is a cargo airline with its head office on the grounds of Luxembourg – Findel Airport in Sandweiler, Luxembourg. It is one of the largest scheduled all-cargo airlines in Europe with a global network...

, Cargoitalia

Cargoitalia

Cargoitalia is a cargo airline with its head office in the Avioport Logistics Park in Lonate Pozzolo, Province of Varese, Italy, near Milan. The airline has its registered office in Milan. It operates all-cargo scheduled and charter services from Italy to the Middle East, the Far East and North...

, Cathay Pacific Cargo, China Airlines

China Airlines

China Airlines is both the flag carrier and the largest airline of Republic of China . Although not directly state-owned, the airline is owned by China Airlines Group, which is owned by the China Aviation Development Foundation...

, EVA Air

EVA Air

EVA Airways Corporation "; ) is an airline based at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport near Taipei, Taiwan, operating passenger and dedicated cargo services to over 40 international destinations in Asia, Australia, Europe and North America. EVA Air is largely privately owned and flies a fully...

, Emirates SkyCargo

Emirates SkyCargo

Emirates SkyCargo is a cargo airline based in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. It is the air freight division of Emirates, which started operations in October 1985, the same year Emirates was formed. Since then it has been the main cargo division of Emirates, and the anchor cargo airline at Dubai...

, Evergreen International Airlines

Evergreen International Airlines

Evergreen International Airlines is a cargo airline based in McMinnville, Oregon, USA. It operates contract freight services, offering charters and scheduled flights, as well as wet lease services. It operates services for the U.S. military and the United States Postal Service, as well as ad hoc...

, Nippon Cargo Airlines

Nippon Cargo Airlines

, or NCA, is a cargo airline based in the Onarimon Yusen Building in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. It operates scheduled cargo services in Asia and to Europe and the North America. Its main base is Narita International Airport outside Tokyo.- History :...

, FedEx Express, DHL Air UK, Kalitta Air

Kalitta Air

Kalitta Air is an American cargo airline headquartered in Ypsilanti Township, Michigan, United States. It operates international scheduled and ad-hoc cargo charter services. Its main base is Willow Run Airport near Ypsilanti.-History:...

, Korean Air

Korean Air

, Lufthansa Cargo

Lufthansa Cargo

Lufthansa Cargo AG is a cargo airline from Germany, operating worldwide air freight and logistics services on behalf of Lufthansa, of which it is a wholly owned subsidiary. The company is headquartered in Building 451 of the Frankfurt Airport area in Frankfurt, the major hub of Lufthansa...

, United Cargo

United Airlines

, UPS

United Parcel Service

United Parcel Service, Inc. , typically referred to by the acronym UPS, is a package delivery company. Headquartered in Sandy Springs, Georgia, United States, UPS delivers more than 15 million packages a day to 6.1 million customers in more than 220 countries and territories around the...

, Southern Air

Southern Air

Southern Air Inc. is a United States airline based in Norwalk, Connecticut, United States.A U.S. FAA part 121 supplemental cargo carrier and portfolio company of Oak Hill Capital Partners, Southern Air, through an all-Boeing fleet of 777Fs, 747-400BCFs and 747-200s, provides a wide range of...

, World Airways

World Airways

World Airways, Inc. is an American airline headquartered at the HLH Building in Peachtree City, Georgia. For the most part, the company operates non-scheduled services. Its main aircraft and maintenance base is Tampa International Airport.-History:...

. Top 5 carriers together transported 33.1% of all “revenue” freight in 2005: American Airlines

American Airlines

(10.9% of the total), FedEx Express (8.8%), Lufthansa Cargo

Lufthansa Cargo

(5.2%), Korean Air Cargo (4.9%), China Airlines

China Airlines

(3.8%).

Most cargo and maintenance facilities at JFK are located north and west of the main terminal area. DHL

DHL

DHL Express is a division of the German logistics company Deutsche Post providing international express mail services. DHL is a world market leader in sea and air mail....

, FedEx Express, Japan Airlines

Japan Airlines

, Lufthansa

Lufthansa

, Nippon Cargo Airlines

Nippon Cargo Airlines

and United Airlines

United Airlines

have cargo facilities at JFK. In 2000, Korean Air Cargo

Korean Air

opened a new $102 million cargo terminal at JFK with total floor area of 81124 square feet (7,536.7 m²) and capability of handling 200,000 tons annually. In 2007, American Airlines

American Airlines

opened a new priority parcel service facility at their Terminal 8, featuring 30-minute drop-offs and pick-ups for priority parcel shipments within the US.

Scheduled cargo airlines and destinations

Rail

JFK is connected to New York's subway and commuter rail system by AirTrain JFK

AirTrain JFK

AirTrain JFK is a 3-line, -long people mover system and elevated railway in New York City providing service to John F. Kennedy International Airport...

. AirTrain stops at all terminals, parking lots, hotel shuttle areas, car rental

Car rental

A car rental or car hire agency is a company that rents automobiles for short periods of time for a fee...

lots, 2 subway stations & the Long Island Rail Road

Long Island Rail Road

The Long Island Rail Road or LIRR is a commuter rail system serving the length of Long Island, New York. It is the busiest commuter railroad in North America, serving about 81.5 million passengers each year. Established in 1834 and having operated continuously since then, it is the oldest US...

. It is free within the airport. Travel time between JFK and Midtown Manhattan

Midtown Manhattan

Midtown Manhattan, or simply Midtown, is an area of Manhattan, New York City home to world-famous commercial zones such as Rockefeller Center, Broadway, and Times Square...

is about 40 minutes (depending on the originating/terminating terminal at JFK) using AirTrain and the Long Island Rail Road at Jamaica Station

Jamaica (LIRR station)

Jamaica is a major hub station of the Long Island Rail Road, and is located in Jamaica, Queens, New York City. It is the largest transit hub on Long Island and is one of the busiest railroad stations in the country with over 200,000 daily passengers...

; or about 60-70 minutes between JFK and Downtown Manhattan using AirTrain and the New York City Subway

New York City Subway

The New York City Subway is a rapid transit system owned by the City of New York and leased to the New York City Transit Authority, a subsidiary agency of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and also known as MTA New York City Transit...

A train at Howard Beach – JFK Airport station or the E (to Midtown Manhattan), J and Z (to Downtown Manhattan) trains at Sutphin Boulevard station.

A Lower Manhattan – Jamaica/JFK Transportation Project has been proposed to connect the AirTrain to Lower Manhattan

Lower Manhattan

Lower Manhattan is the southernmost part of the island of Manhattan, the main island and center of business and government of the City of New York...

Bus

Several city bus lines link JFK to the New York City Subway

New York City Subway

and Long Island Rail Road

Long Island Rail Road

, including the Q3, Q6, Q7, Q10 (Local/Limited), and B15, with free transfers provided for subway connections. The buses are handicapped accessible. There are also many private bus lines operating express buses to Manhattan, the Hudson Valley

Hudson Valley

The Hudson Valley comprises the valley of the Hudson River and its adjacent communities in New York State, United States, from northern Westchester County northward to the cities of Albany and Troy.-History:...

, and Long Island.

Taxi

New York City's yellow cabs, licensed by the New York City Taxi & Limousine Commission, offer a flat rate service of $45 from JFK airport to Manhattan, excluding tips and tolls. Since November 30, 2006, this flat rate fare (excluding tips and tolls) applies to travel from Manhattan to JFK as well. Depending on the time of day, taxi travel from JFK to Midtown Manhattan can be as quick as 35 minutes. Door-to-door Car Service is another popular transportation option.

Car

JFK Airport is easily accessible by car and is located in southern Queens on the Van Wyck Expressway (I-678), which can be accessed from the Belt Parkway

Belt Parkway

The Belt System is a series of connected limited-access highways that form a belt-like circle around the New York City boroughs of Brooklyn and Queens. The system comprises four officially separate parkways; however, three of the four are signed as the Belt Parkway...

, the Grand Central Parkway

Grand Central Parkway

The Grand Central Parkway is a parkway that stretches from the RFK-Triborough Bridge in New York City to Nassau County on Long Island. At the Queens-Nassau border, it becomes the Northern State Parkway, which runs across the northern part of Long Island through Nassau County and into Suffolk...

and Queens Boulevard

Queens Boulevard

Queens Boulevard is a major thoroughfare in the New York City boroughs of Manhattan and Queens connecting communities from Midtown Manhattan to Jamaica...

. A ring road connects the airport terminals to the Belt Parkway and the Van Wyck Expressway. The airport offers customers over 17,000 parking spaces, included in multi-level parking garages, surface spaces in the Central Terminal Area, a long-term parking lot and valet parking.
There are also private off-site parking operators near the airport.

Van Wyck Expressway twists through the terminal nucleus and turns into the JFK Expressway

JFK Expressway

The JFK Expressway is a short freeway connecting the Belt Parkway with John F. Kennedy International Airport in Queens, New York City. It interchanges with the Nassau Expressway at the former proposed south end of the Clearview Expressway . The roadway is the newest expressway in New York City,...

. This four-lane expressway allows for more convenient access to the airport for Long Island users via the westbound Belt Parkway. Because it lies almost entirely within Kennedy Airport, the JFK Expressway was constructed, and is maintained by the Port Authority. The JFK Expressway was built as part of an ongoing, multi-billion overhaul of Kennedy Airport that began in the late 1980s. It was designed to relieve up to 30 percent of the traffic volume from the Van Wyck Expressway.
Approximately 6 major rental car companies serve JFK Airport, with rental locations located on and off the airport. Each terminal's arrivals level (usually near the baggage carousel) has either a rental car counter or courtesy telephone for each of the car rental companies.

Helicopter

US Helicopter

US Helicopter was an independent air shuttle service that operated regularly scheduled helicopter flights from Manhattan to Newark and JFK airports. Flights left from Downtown and Midtown Manhattan Heliports to Delta Air Lines Terminal 3 at John F. Kennedy International Airport...

operated regularly scheduled flights every hour between Terminal 3 and the East 34th Street Heliport

East 34th Street Heliport

East 34th Street Heliport is a heliport on the east side of Manhattan located between the East River and the FDR Drive viaduct. Also known as the Atlantic Metroport at East 34th Street, it is a public heliport owned by New York City and run by the Economic Development Corporation.The East 34th...

. Passengers traveling by helicopter to the airport passed through a security checkpoint at the heliport, not at JFK. On May 14, 2007, US Helicopter moved its operations from Terminal 9 to Terminal 3. US Helicopter announced that it was temporarily suspending operations on September 25, 2009 due to financial difficulties.

New York Airways

New York Airways

New York Airways was a helicopter airline in the New York City area. Founded in 1949 as a mail and cargo carrier, on July 9, 1953 it became the first scheduled helicopter airline to carry passengers in the United States...

provided helicopter service from JFK to other area airports and heliports from 1955 to 1979, and Pan American World Airways

Pan American World Airways

Pan American World Airways, commonly known as Pan Am, was the principal and largest international air carrier in the United States from 1927 until its collapse on December 4, 1991...

continued Manhattan helicopter service during the 1980s in order to feed its JFK flights. During the 1970s, New York Helicopter offered JFK flights from the top of the Pan Am Building

MetLife Building

The MetLife Building, originally called the Pan Am Building, is a skyscraper located at 200 Park Avenue in Midtown Manhattan, New York City.-History:...

in midtown Manhattan

Midtown Manhattan

Midtown Manhattan, or simply Midtown, is an area of Manhattan, New York City home to world-famous commercial zones such as Rockefeller Center, Broadway, and Times Square...

, but this service was cancelled after a major accident in 1977.

Accidents and incidents

JFK has been the site of several notable aviation accidents and incidents

Aviation accidents and incidents

An aviation accident is defined in the Convention on International Civil Aviation Annex 13 as an occurrence associated with the operation of an aircraft which takes place between the time any person boards the aircraft with the intention of flight and all such persons have disembarked, in which a...

On 19 October 1953, an Eastern Airlines flight from Idlewild International Airport (the former name of JFK) to San Juan
San Juan, Puerto Rico
San Juan , officially Municipio de la Ciudad Capital San Juan Bautista , is the capital and most populous municipality in Puerto Rico, an unincorporated territory of the United States. As of the 2010 census, it had a population of 395,326 making it the 46th-largest city under the jurisdiction of...

, Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico , officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico , is an unincorporated territory of the United States, located in the northeastern Caribbean, east of the Dominican Republic and west of both the United States Virgin Islands and the British Virgin Islands.Puerto Rico comprises an...

, operated by Lockheed L-749A Constellation
Lockheed Constellation
The Lockheed Constellation was a propeller-driven airliner powered by four 18-cylinder radial Wright R-3350 engines. It was built by Lockheed between 1943 and 1958 at its Burbank, California, USA, facility. A total of 856 aircraft were produced in numerous models, all distinguished by a...

N119A crashed on take-off. Two passengers were killed.
December 18, 1954 – a Linee Aeree Italiane Douglas DC-6
Douglas DC-6
The Douglas DC-6 is a piston-powered airliner and transport aircraft built by the Douglas Aircraft Company from 1946 to 1958. Originally intended as a military transport near the end of World War II, it was reworked after the war to compete with the Lockheed Constellation in the long-range...

crashed on its fourth approach attempt to land at Idlewild, after circling for 2.5 hours. 26 of the 32 passengers on board were killed.
November 10, 1958 – Vickers Viscount
Vickers Viscount
The Vickers Viscount was a British medium-range turboprop airliner first flown in 1948 by Vickers-Armstrongs, making it the first such aircraft to enter service in the world...

, CF-TGL of Trans-Canada Air Lines
Trans-Canada Air Lines
Trans-Canada Air Lines was a Canadian airline and operated as the country's flag carrier. Its corporate headquarters were in Montreal, Quebec...

was destroyed by fire after it was struck by Lockheed L-749 Super Constellation
Lockheed Constellation
The Lockheed Constellation was a propeller-driven airliner powered by four 18-cylinder radial Wright R-3350 engines. It was built by Lockheed between 1943 and 1958 at its Burbank, California, USA, facility. A total of 856 aircraft were produced in numerous models, all distinguished by a...

N6503C of Seaboard & Western Airlines which had crashed on take-off.
December 16, 1960 – a United Airlines
United Airlines
United Air Lines, Inc., is the world's largest airline with 86,852 employees United Air Lines, Inc., is the world's largest airline with 86,852 employees United Air Lines, Inc., is the world's largest airline with 86,852 employees (which includes the entire holding company United Continental...

Douglas DC-8
Douglas DC-8
The Douglas DC-8 is a four-engined narrow-body passenger commercial jet airliner, manufactured from 1958 to 1972 by the Douglas Aircraft Company...

bound for Idlewild collided
1960 New York air disaster
The 1960 New York air disaster, also known as the Park Slope Plane Crash, was a collision on December 16, 1960, between two airliners, United Airlines Flight 826 and Trans World Airlines Flight 266 over New York City, in which Flight 266 crashed into Staten Island and 826 into Park Slope, Brooklyn...

with a TWA
Twa
The Twa are any of several hunting peoples of Africa who live interdependently with agricultural Bantu populations, and generally hold a socially subordinate position: They provide the farming population with game in exchange for agricultural products....

Super Constellation bound for La Guardia; the United jet crashed in Park Slope, Brooklyn
Brooklyn
Brooklyn is the most populous of New York City's five boroughs, with nearly 2.6 million residents, and the second-largest in area. Since 1896, Brooklyn has had the same boundaries as Kings County, which is now the most populous county in New York State and the second-most densely populated...

, the TWA plane on Staten Island
Staten Island
Staten Island is a borough of New York City, New York, United States, located in the southwest part of the city. Staten Island is separated from New Jersey by the Arthur Kill and the Kill Van Kull, and from the rest of New York by New York Bay...

, killing 127 people on board and five on the ground.
March 1, 1962 – American Airlines Flight 1
American Airlines Flight 1
American Airlines Flight 1 was a domestic, scheduled passenger flight from New York International Airport , New York to Los Angeles International Airport, California that crashed shortly after take-off on 1 March 1962. All 87 passengers and eight crew died in the crash...

, a Boeing 707
Boeing 707
The Boeing 707 is a four-engine narrow-body commercial passenger jet airliner developed by Boeing in the early 1950s. Its name is most commonly pronounced as "Seven Oh Seven". The first airline to operate the 707 was Pan American World Airways, inaugurating the type's first commercial flight on...

crashed on takeoff from Idlewild after its rudder separated from the tail. All 95 passengers and 12 crew members were killed.
November 30, 1962 – an Eastern Air Lines
Eastern Air Lines
Eastern Air Lines was a major United States airline that existed from 1926 to 1991. Before its dissolution it was headquartered at Miami International Airport in unincorporated Miami-Dade County, Florida.-History:...

Douglas DC-7
Douglas DC-7
The Douglas DC-7 is an American transport aircraft built by the Douglas Aircraft Company from 1953 to 1958. It was the last major piston engine powered transport made by Douglas, coming just a few years before the advent of jet aircraft such as the Boeing 707 and Douglas DC-8.-Design and...

crashed into the ground during a missed approach
Missed approach
Missed approach is an instrument flight rules procedure which is a standard component segment of an instrument approach. Generally, if the pilot flying or the pilot in command determines by the time the aircraft is at the decision height or missed approach point , that the runway or its...

.
February 8, 1965 – an Eastern Air Lines Douglas DC-7
Eastern Air Lines Flight 663
Eastern Air Lines Flight 663 was a scheduled, domestic passenger flight from Boston, Massachusetts, to Atlanta, Georgia, that crashed near Jones Beach State Park, New York, on February 8, 1965. Flight 663 had scheduled stopovers at John F...

crashed off Jones Beach
Jones Beach State Park
Jones Beach State Park is a state park of the U.S. state of New York. It is located in southern Nassau County, in the hamlet of Wantagh, on Jones Beach Island, a barrier island linked to Long Island by the Meadowbrook State Parkway, Wantagh State Parkway and Ocean Parkway .The park is renowned for...

after takeoff when the pilots found themselves on an apparent collision course with an inbound Pan Am
Pan American World Airways
Pan American World Airways, commonly known as Pan Am, was the principal and largest international air carrier in the United States from 1927 until its collapse on December 4, 1991...

Boeing 707
Boeing 707
The Boeing 707 is a four-engine narrow-body commercial passenger jet airliner developed by Boeing in the early 1950s. Its name is most commonly pronounced as "Seven Oh Seven". The first airline to operate the 707 was Pan American World Airways, inaugurating the type's first commercial flight on...

and made evasive maneuvers.
1967 – The Air France Robbery
Air France Robbery (1967)
In 1967, $420,000 in cash was stolen from the Air France cargo terminal at New York City's JFK International Airport. While there were a large number of cargo thefts at JFK airport in 1967, this was the largest cash robbery that had taken place at the time. It was carried out by Henry Hill,...

targeted $420,000 in cash brought in as Air France cargo, Lucchese crime family
Lucchese crime family
The Lucchese crime family is one of the "Five Families" that dominates organized crime activities in New York City, United States, within the nationwide criminal phenomenon known as the Mafia . The family originated in the early 1920s with Gaetano "Tommy" Reina serving as boss up until his murder...

associates Henry Hill, Robert McMahon, Tommy DeSimone and Montague Montemurro carried out the robbery.
September 8, 1970 – a Trans International Airlines
Trans International Airlines
Trans International Airlines was an airline which offered charter service from and within the United States. It offered scheduled service operating as Transamerica Airlines in its last decade...

DC-8-63CF ferry flight to Dulles International Airport crashed on takeoff from runway 13R, killing all 11 crewmembers on board. The DC-8 freighter started rotating in a nose-high attitude 1500 feet (457.2 m) into the take-off. After becoming airborne at 2800 feet (853.4 m) down the runway, the aircraft climbed to about 300–500 feet, rolled 20 degrees to the left, crashed and caught fire. The loss of pitch control was caused by the entrapment of a pointed, asphalt-covered object between the leading edge of the right elevator and the right horizontal spar web access door in the aft part of the stabilizer.
December 1, 1974 – Northwest Orient
Northwest Airlines
Northwest Airlines, Inc. was a major United States airline founded in 1926 and absorbed into Delta Air Lines by a merger approved on October 29, 2008, making Delta the largest airline in the world...

Flight 6231 a Boeing 727
Boeing 727
The Boeing 727 is a mid-size, narrow-body, three-engine, T-tailed commercial jet airliner, manufactured by Boeing. The Boeing 727 first flew in 1963, and for over a decade more were built per year than any other jet airliner. When production ended in 1984 a total of 1,832 aircraft had been produced...

chartered to pick up the Baltimore Colts
Indianapolis Colts
The Indianapolis Colts are a professional American football team based in Indianapolis. They are currently members of the South Division of the American Football Conference in the National Football League ....

in Buffalo
Buffalo, New York
Buffalo is the second most populous city in the state of New York, after New York City. Located in Western New York on the eastern shores of Lake Erie and at the head of the Niagara River across from Fort Erie, Ontario, Buffalo is the seat of Erie County and the principal city of the...

crashed near Thiells, New York
Thiells, New York
Thiells, formally known as Thiells Corner in the 1850s, is a hamlet in the Town of Haverstraw Rockland County, New York, United States located north of Mount Ivy; east of Pomona; south of Tomkins Cove and west of Garnerville...

. The flight departed John F. Kennedy International Airport with only the cockpit crew on board. The pitot heat was not turned on and the tube
Pitot tube
A pitot tube is a pressure measurement instrument used to measure fluid flow velocity. The pitot tube was invented by the French engineer Henri Pitot Ulo in the early 18th century and was modified to its modern form in the mid-19th century by French scientist Henry Darcy...

iced over during climb out making the airspeed readings unreliable. The plane stalled passing 23,000' and the crew was unable to regain control. All 3 crewmembers on board were killed.
June 24, 1975 – Eastern Air Lines
Eastern Air Lines
Eastern Air Lines was a major United States airline that existed from 1926 to 1991. Before its dissolution it was headquartered at Miami International Airport in unincorporated Miami-Dade County, Florida.-History:...

Flight 66
Eastern Air Lines Flight 66
Eastern Air Lines Flight 66, a Boeing 727-225 with registration number N8845E, departed from New Orleans Moisant Field, bound for John F. Kennedy International Airport on the afternoon of June 24, 1975. The aircraft carried 124 persons, including 116 passengers and 8 crew.As the aircraft was on its...

, a Boeing 727
Boeing 727
The Boeing 727 is a mid-size, narrow-body, three-engine, T-tailed commercial jet airliner, manufactured by Boeing. The Boeing 727 first flew in 1963, and for over a decade more were built per year than any other jet airliner. When production ended in 1984 a total of 1,832 aircraft had been produced...

on final approach from New Orleans, crashed into the runway lights short of runway 22L, killing 112 passengers and crew. The cause of the crash was wind shear
Wind shear
Wind shear, sometimes referred to as windshear or wind gradient, is a difference in wind speed and direction over a relatively short distance in the atmosphere...

during a heavy thunderstorm.
June 23rd, 1976 - Two vehicles were firebombed near the Pan Am cargo terminal at Kennedy Airport. An anonymous call told the New York Post that the Jewish Armed Resistance was responsible.
December 11, 1978 – The Lufthansa heist
Lufthansa heist
The Lufthansa heist was a robbery at John F. Kennedy International Airport on December 11, 1978. An estimated $5 million in cash and $875,000 in jewels were stolen, at the time making it the largest cash robbery ever committed on American soil...

targeted over $5 million in cash and jewels on a Lufthansa flight arriving from Germany. The crime was planned by Jimmy Burke, an associate of the Lucchese crime family
Lucchese crime family
The Lucchese crime family is one of the "Five Families" that dominates organized crime activities in New York City, United States, within the nationwide criminal phenomenon known as the Mafia . The family originated in the early 1920s with Gaetano "Tommy" Reina serving as boss up until his murder...

, and carried out by several of his associates; at the time, it was the largest cash robbery ever committed on American soil.
April 28th, 1986 - A member of the Jewish Defense League
Jewish Defense League
The Jewish Defense League is a Jewish organization whose stated goal is to "protect Jews from antisemitism by whatever means necessary"...

placed a firebomb under a loading dock at a Pan Am building at Kennedy International Airport in protest of the airline's flights to Russia.
January 25, 1990 – Avianca Flight 52
Avianca Flight 52
Avianca Flight 52 was a regularly scheduled flight from Bogotá to New York via Medellín, Colombia. On Thursday, January 25, 1990, the aircraft performing this flight, a Boeing 707-321B registered as , crashed into the village of Cove Neck, Long Island, New York after running out of fuel...

, a Boeing 707-321B
Boeing 707
The Boeing 707 is a four-engine narrow-body commercial passenger jet airliner developed by Boeing in the early 1950s. Its name is most commonly pronounced as "Seven Oh Seven". The first airline to operate the 707 was Pan American World Airways, inaugurating the type's first commercial flight on...

arriving from Bogotá and Medellin, crashed at Cove Neck
Cove Neck, New York
The Village of Cove Neck is a village located within the town of Oyster Bay in Nassau County, New York, United States. The population was 286 at the 2010 census.-History:...

, Long Island
Long Island
Long Island is an island located in the southeast part of the U.S. state of New York, just east of Manhattan. Stretching northeast into the Atlantic Ocean, Long Island contains four counties, two of which are boroughs of New York City , and two of which are mainly suburban...

, after a missed approach to runway 22L at JFK and subsequently running out of fuel. 73 passengers and crew perished. 85 survived.
July 30, 1992 – TWA Flight 843
TWA Flight 843
TWA Flight 843 was a Trans World Airlines passenger flight that crashed after an aborted takeoff from John F. Kennedy International Airport to San Francisco International Airport in July 1992. Despite an intense fire after the crash, the crew was able to evacuate all 280 passengers from the...

, a Lockheed L-1011
Lockheed L-1011
The Lockheed L-1011 TriStar, commonly referred to as the L-1011 or TriStar, is a medium-to-long range, widebody passenger trijet airliner. It was the third widebody airliner to enter commercial operations, following the Boeing 747 and the McDonnell Douglas DC-10. Between 1968 and 1984, Lockheed...

departing for San Francisco, aborted takeoff shortly after liftoff. There were no fatalities among the 280 passengers, although the aircraft was destroyed.
November 12, 2001 – American Airlines Flight 587
American Airlines Flight 587
American Airlines Flight 587, an Airbus A300, crashed into the Belle Harbor neighborhood of Queens, a borough of New York City, New York, shortly after takeoff from John F. Kennedy International Airport on November 12, 2001. This is the second deadliest U.S...

, an Airbus A300
Airbus A300
The Airbus A300 is a short- to medium-range widebody jet airliner. Launched in 1972 as the world's first twin-engined widebody, it was the first product of Airbus Industrie, a consortium of European aerospace companies, wholly owned today by EADS...

crashed while en route to Santo Domingo
Santo Domingo
Santo Domingo, known officially as Santo Domingo de Guzmán, is the capital and largest city in the Dominican Republic. Its metropolitan population was 2,084,852 in 2003, and estimated at 3,294,385 in 2010. The city is located on the Caribbean Sea, at the mouth of the Ozama River...

in the Dominican Republic
Dominican Republic
The Dominican Republic is a nation on the island of La Hispaniola, part of the Greater Antilles archipelago in the Caribbean region. The western third of the island is occupied by the nation of Haiti, making Hispaniola one of two Caribbean islands that are shared by two countries...

. During climb, the aircraft lost most of its vertical fin due to the co-pilot's overcontrol of the rudder while encountering wake turbulence, and crashed into the Belle Harbor neighborhood of Queens. The crash killed all 260 people on the plane and five people on the ground.
On September 6, 2007, TAM Airlines Flight 8080 suffered a heavy landing due to the elevators not responding in the landing flare. An investigation revealed that #2 flight control primary computer did not match #1 and #3 computers, sending erroneous messages to the actuators for the elevators.
January 16, 2010 – Terminal 8 was evacuated and passengers rescreened after a person bypassed security. According to a spokesman for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey
Port Authority of New York and New Jersey
The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey is a bi-state port district, established in 1921 through an interstate compact, that runs most of the regional transportation infrastructure, including the bridges, tunnels, airports, and seaports, within the Port of New York and New Jersey...

, which operates the airport, the evacuation was triggered when a man left an American Airlines
American Airlines
American Airlines, Inc. is the world's fourth-largest airline in passenger miles transported and operating revenues. American Airlines is a subsidiary of the AMR Corporation and is headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas adjacent to its largest hub at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport...

first-class lounge through a restricted door.
February 16–17, 2010 – Air Traffic Controller Glenn Duffy brought his seven-year-old son to work and allowed the boy to direct two airliners. The following day, he brought in his eight-year-old daughter and also allowed her to direct several airliners. These incidents prompted Duffy and his supervisor to be suspended from their jobs without pay, and an FAA
Federal Aviation Administration
The Federal Aviation Administration is the national aviation authority of the United States. An agency of the United States Department of Transportation, it has authority to regulate and oversee all aspects of civil aviation in the U.S...

investigation.
August 9, 2010 - Upon landing at JFK, Jet Blue Flight 1052 Flight Attendant Steven Slater became very angry at a passenger, shouted a number of swears at everyone on the plane via the public-address system in his frustration, and told them that he was going to quit his job. He opened the door of the parked plane, and the emergency slide deployed. He took a couple cans of beer from the galley in his hand and exited the plane via the emergency slide. He then got into his jeep and drove to his house, where he was subsequently arrested for criminal mischief and reckless endangerment. He reported to authorities that he was having a bad day. The next day, he was released on a $1,500 bond. If convicted of the pending charges, the former flight attendant could serve 7 years in prison.
September 25, 2010 - Delta Air Lines Flight 4951 crash-landed after its right-side landing gear failed to deploy.

Other accidents and incidents involving JFK include:

Sabena Flight 548
Sabena Flight 548
Sabena Flight 548, registration OO-SJB, was a Boeing 707 aircraft that crashed en route to Brussels, Belgium, from New York City on February 15, 1961, killing the entire United States Figure Skating team on its way to the 1961 World Championships in Prague, Czechoslovakia.The flight, which...

(1961), outbound from JFK, crashed while trying to land in Brussels
Brussels
Brussels , officially the Brussels Region or Brussels-Capital Region , is the capital of Belgium and the de facto capital of the European Union...

, Belgium
Belgium
Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...
Eastern Air Lines Flight 401
Eastern Air Lines Flight 401
Eastern Air Lines Flight 401 was a Lockheed L-1011 Tristar 1 jet that crashed into the Florida Everglades on the night of December 29, 1972, causing 101 fatalities...

(1972), outbound from JFK, crashed while trying to land in Miami, Florida
Florida
Florida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...
Pan Am Flight 1736 (1977), originated from LAX and stopped at JFK, collided with another 747 at Tenerife
Tenerife
Tenerife is the largest and most populous island of the seven Canary Islands, it is also the most populated island of Spain, with a land area of 2,034.38 km² and 906,854 inhabitants, 43% of the total population of the Canary Islands. About five million tourists visit Tenerife each year, the...
LOT Polish Airlines Flight 007
LOT Polish Airlines Flight 007
LOT Polish Airlines Flight 007 crashed near Okęcie Airport in Warsaw, Poland, on 14 March 1980, due to mechanical failure as the crew aborted a landing and attempted to go-around. All 87 crew and passengers died.- The aircraft :...

(1980), outbound from JFK, crashed while trying to land in Warsaw
Warsaw
Warsaw is the capital and largest city of Poland. It is located on the Vistula River, roughly from the Baltic Sea and from the Carpathian Mountains. Its population in 2010 was estimated at 1,716,855 residents with a greater metropolitan area of 2,631,902 residents, making Warsaw the 10th most...

, Poland
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
Korean Air Lines Flight 007 (1983), originated from JFK, shot down by Soviet jet interceptors off the coast of Sakhalin
Sakhalin
Sakhalin or Saghalien, is a large island in the North Pacific, lying between 45°50' and 54°24' N.It is part of Russia, and is Russia's largest island, and is administered as part of Sakhalin Oblast...

after it strayed into prohibited Soviet airspace because of a navigational error
Pan Am Flight 103
Pan Am Flight 103
Pan Am Flight 103 was Pan American World Airways' third daily scheduled transatlantic flight from London Heathrow Airport to New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport...

(1988), bound for JFK, with continued service to Detroit, exploded over Lockerbie
Lockerbie
Lockerbie is a town in the Dumfries and Galloway region of south-western Scotland. It lies approximately from Glasgow, and from the English border. It had a population of 4,009 at the 2001 census...

, Scotland
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
TWA Flight 800
TWA Flight 800
Trans World Airlines Flight 800 , a Boeing 747-131, exploded and crashed into the Atlantic Ocean near East Moriches, New York, on July 17, 1996, at about 20:31 EDT, 12 minutes after takeoff, killing all 230 persons on board. At the time, it was the second-deadliest U.S...

(1996), outbound from JFK, bound for Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

, exploded soon after takeoff, and crashed off the coast of Long Island
Long Island
Long Island is an island located in the southeast part of the U.S. state of New York, just east of Manhattan. Stretching northeast into the Atlantic Ocean, Long Island contains four counties, two of which are boroughs of New York City , and two of which are mainly suburban...
Swissair Flight 111
Swissair Flight 111
Swissair Flight 111 was a Swissair McDonnell Douglas MD-11 on a scheduled airline flight from John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City, United States to Cointrin International Airport in Geneva, Switzerland...

(1998), outbound from JFK, bound for Geneva
Geneva
Geneva In the national languages of Switzerland the city is known as Genf , Ginevra and Genevra is the second-most-populous city in Switzerland and is the most populous city of Romandie, the French-speaking part of Switzerland...

, crashed off the coast of Nova Scotia
Nova Scotia
Nova Scotia is one of Canada's three Maritime provinces and is the most populous province in Atlantic Canada. The name of the province is Latin for "New Scotland," but "Nova Scotia" is the recognized, English-language name of the province. The provincial capital is Halifax. Nova Scotia is the...
EgyptAir Flight 990
EgyptAir Flight 990
EgyptAir Flight 990 was a regularly scheduled flight from Los Angeles International Airport, California to Cairo International Airport, Egypt, with a stop at John F. Kennedy International Airport, New York...

(1999), outbound from JFK, bound for Cairo
Cairo
Cairo , is the capital of Egypt and the largest city in the Arab world and Africa, and the 16th largest metropolitan area in the world. Nicknamed "The City of a Thousand Minarets" for its preponderance of Islamic architecture, Cairo has long been a centre of the region's political and cultural life...

, crashed off the coast of Nantucket
Air France Flight 4590
Air France Flight 4590
Air France Flight 4590 was a Concorde flight operated by Air France which was scheduled to run from Charles de Gaulle International Airport near Paris, to John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City. On 2000, it crashed in Gonesse, France. All one hundred passengers and nine crew...

(2000), a Concorde
Concorde
Aérospatiale-BAC Concorde was a turbojet-powered supersonic passenger airliner, a supersonic transport . It was a product of an Anglo-French government treaty, combining the manufacturing efforts of Aérospatiale and the British Aircraft Corporation...

bound for JFK, crashed in Gonesse
Gonesse
Gonesse is a commune in the northeastern suburbs of Paris, France. It is located from the centre of Paris.The commune lies immediately north of Le Bourget Airport and southwest of Charles de Gaulle International Airport.-History:...

, France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
Korean Air Flight 85 (2001), bound for JFK on September 11, was escorted by fighter jets
Fighter aircraft
A fighter aircraft is a military aircraft designed primarily for air-to-air combat with other aircraft, as opposed to a bomber, which is designed primarily to attack ground targets...

to Whitehorse International Airport
Whitehorse International Airport
Erik Nielsen Whitehorse International Airport is located in Whitehorse, Yukon, Canada. It is part of the National Airports System, and is operated by the government of the Yukon Territory...

during Operation Yellow Ribbon
Operation Yellow Ribbon
Operation Yellow Ribbon was commenced by Transport Canada to handle the diversion of civilian airline flights in response to the September 11 attacks in 2001. Canada’s goal was to ensure that potentially destructive air traffic be removed from U.S. airspace as quickly as possible, and away from...

on fears it may have been hijacked. This was not the case; the plane was low on fuel, and according to a public affairs official at the airport, there was also a communication problem with the air crew. When the plane landed, witnesses reported that the Royal Canadian Mounted Police
Royal Canadian Mounted Police
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police , literally ‘Royal Gendarmerie of Canada’; colloquially known as The Mounties, and internally as ‘The Force’) is the national police force of Canada, and one of the most recognized of its kind in the world. It is unique in the world as a national, federal,...

ordered the crew out at gunpoint. The entire incident was a misunderstanding caused by a malfunctioning transponder.
JetBlue Airways Flight 292
JetBlue Airways Flight 292
JetBlue Airways Flight 292 was a scheduled flight from Bob Hope Airport in Burbank, California to John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City. On September 21, 2005, flight 292 executed an emergency landing at Los Angeles International Airport after the nose wheels jammed in an...

(2005), was bound for JFK when the nose landing gear twisted 90 degrees to the right, perpendicular to the way the wheels normally face. The Airbus A320
Airbus A320
The Airbus A320 family is a family of short- to medium-range, narrow-body, commercial passenger jet airliners manufactured by Airbus Industrie.Airbus was originally a consortium of European aerospace companies, and is now fully owned by EADS. Airbus's name has been Airbus SAS since 2001...

had taken off from Bob Hope Airport
Bob Hope Airport
Bob Hope Airport is a public airport located 3 miles northwest of the central business district of Burbank, a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States...

in Burbank, California
Burbank, California
Burbank is a city in Los Angeles County in Southern California, United States, north of downtown Los Angeles. The estimated population in 2010 was 103,340....

, and then made a successful emergency landing at Los Angeles International Airport
Los Angeles International Airport
Los Angeles International Airport is the primary airport serving the Greater Los Angeles Area, the second-most populated metropolitan area in the United States. It is most often referred to by its IATA airport code LAX, with the letters pronounced individually...

. Of the 140 passengers and 5 crewmembers on board, no one was injured.
On June 2, 2007, federal authorities announced that four people had been arrested in connection with an alleged terror plot to attack the JFK Airport. FBI officials say the men, one of whom was a former air cargo employee at the airport, planned to blow up terminal buildings
Airport terminal
An airport terminal is a building at an airport where passengers transfer between ground transportation and the facilities that allow them to board and disembark from aircraft....

and jet fuel
Jet fuel
Jet fuel is a type of aviation fuel designed for use in aircraft powered by gas-turbine engines. It is clear to straw-colored in appearance. The most commonly used fuels for commercial aviation are Jet A and Jet A-1 which are produced to a standardized international specification...

infrastructure.

In popular culture

As one of the major international gateways in the United States, JFK possesses a high profile in popular culture

Popular culture

Popular culture is the totality of ideas, perspectives, attitudes, memes, images and other phenomena that are deemed preferred per an informal consensus within the mainstream of a given culture, especially Western culture of the early to mid 20th century and the emerging global mainstream of the...

Games

The 2008
2008 in video gaming
Notable events of 2008 in video gaming. See also history of video games. The release dates listed in this article are the games' original release dates.-Events:...

video game, Grand Theft Auto IV
Grand Theft Auto IV
Grand Theft Auto IV is a 2008 open world action video game published by Rockstar Games, and developed by British games developer Rockstar North. It has been released for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 video game consoles, and for the Windows operating system...

, the TWA terminal exterior was used in the game's fictional Francis International Airport

Performers

The British Invasion
British Invasion
The British Invasion is a term used to describe the large number of rock and roll, beat, rock, and pop performers from the United Kingdom who became popular in the United States during the time period from 1964 through 1966.- Background :...

began with the arrival of The Beatles
The Beatles
The Beatles were an English rock band, active throughout the 1960s and one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music. Formed in Liverpool, by 1962 the group consisted of John Lennon , Paul McCartney , George Harrison and Ringo Starr...

at JFK in 1964, who held their first American press conference at the airport.

Songs and albums

JFK is mentioned in songs by U2
U2
U2 are an Irish rock band from Dublin. Formed in 1976, the group consists of Bono , The Edge , Adam Clayton , and Larry Mullen, Jr. . U2's early sound was rooted in post-punk but eventually grew to incorporate influences from many genres of popular music...

, Joe Purdy
Joe Purdy
Joe Purdy is an American folk singer-songwriter who has recorded and released ten albums in eight years.- The band :Joe Purdy's band members have included: Chris Seefried, Brian Wright, Willy C. Golden, , and .- Career :...

, Pet Shop Boys
Pet Shop Boys
Pet Shop Boys are an English electronic dance music duo, consisting of Neil Tennant, who provides main vocals, keyboards and occasional guitar, and Chris Lowe on keyboards....

, Prefuse 73, Paul Simon
Paul Simon
Paul Frederic Simon is an American singer-songwriter and guitarist.Simon is best known for his success, beginning in 1965, as part of the duo Simon & Garfunkel, with musical partner Art Garfunkel. Simon wrote most of the pair's songs, including three that reached number one on the US singles...

Barry Manilow, and rapper Notorious B.I.G..

Stage productions

In his one-man show Red diaper baby
Red diaper baby
Red diaper baby describes a child of parents who were members of the United States Communist Party or were close to the party or sympathetic to its aims.-History:...

, Josh Kornbluth's eccentric communist father insists on referring to JFK as the "Bay of Pigs Memorial Airport".

Television

The theme song of the 1960s comedy TV series Car 54, Where Are You?
Car 54, Where Are You?
Car 54, Where Are You? is an American sitcom that ran on NBC from 1961 to 1963. Episodes had various directors, the most recognized being Al De Caprio. Stanley Prager and Nat Hiken also directed several episodes. Most of its filming was on location in The Bronx, and at Biograph...

contained the line: "There's a scout troop short a child, [Nikita] Khrushchev's
Nikita Khrushchev
Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev led the Soviet Union during part of the Cold War. He served as First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1953 to 1964, and as Chairman of the Council of Ministers, or Premier, from 1958 to 1964...

due at Idlewild," referencing the airport's previous name.
In I Love Lucy
I Love Lucy
I Love Lucy is an American television sitcom starring Lucille Ball, Desi Arnaz, Vivian Vance, and William Frawley. The black-and-white series originally ran from October 15, 1951, to May 6, 1957, on the Columbia Broadcasting System...

, Lucy misses the SS Constitution
SS Constitution
The SS Constitution was an ocean liner owned by American Export Lines. She was commissioned in 1951. She sailed on the New York-Genoa-Naples and Gibraltar route to Europe...

bound for Europe and is forced to take a helicopter
Helicopter
A helicopter is a type of rotorcraft in which lift and thrust are supplied by one or more engine-driven rotors. This allows the helicopter to take off and land vertically, to hover, and to fly forwards, backwards, and laterally...

out of Idlewild Airport.
In Twilight Zone
Twilight zone
-Television series and spinoffs:*The Twilight Zone, the anthology television series and its franchise:**The Twilight Zone , the 1959–1964 original television series***Twilight Zone: The Movie, a 1983 film based on the original series...

, episode The Odyssey of Flight 33
The Odyssey of Flight 33
"The Odyssey of Flight 33" is an episode of the American television anthology series The Twilight Zone.-Synopsis:This episode takes place on Global Airlines Flight 33, en route from London to New York City. About fifty minutes from Idlewild Airport, Captain Farver and his crew notice that their...

a Boeing 707 jet airliner of the fictional "Global Airlines" bound for Idlewild from London is caught in a mysterious "tailwind" and winds up in the past.
The British television series, The Saint, season 1, episode 4 (1962), begins its story with a shot of the terminal 3 building and a superimposed title, "Idlewild International Airport", a long pan of the area, and then an announcement for Pan Am flight 114 to Paris
Friends
Friends
Friends is an American sitcom created by David Crane and Marta Kauffman, which aired on NBC from September 22, 1994 to May 6, 2004. The series revolves around a group of friends in Manhattan. The series was produced by Bright/Kauffman/Crane Productions, in association with Warner Bros. Television...

(2004) (series finale)
JFK is used frequently in the Law & Order
Law & Order franchise
The Law & Order franchise is a number of related American television series created by Dick Wolf and originally broadcast on NBC, all of which deal with some aspect of the criminal justice system...

franchise.
JFK (then known as Idlewild) is used frequently in the ABC
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...

show Pan Am
Pan Am (TV series)
Pan Am is an American period drama television series created by writer Jack Orman. Named for the iconic Pan American World Airways, the series focuses on the pilots and stewardesses of the airline as it operated in the early 1960s at the beginning of the commercial jet age.Sony licensed the rights...

. The Worldport
Worldport
Worldport can refer to:*Terminal 3 of John F. Kennedy International Airport, New York, USA which was previously the Pan Am Worldport. See Worldport *Port of Los Angeles, also known as WORLDPORT LA...

serves as one of the main settings in the series.

External links

John F. Kennedy International Airport (official site)
Terminal4 JFK International Airport (official site)
- OpenNav airspace and charts for KJFK
JFK Airport Monitor (from Passur.com)
How to get to JFK Airport via the Subway and other mass transit
JFK WiFi Service Guide
JFK Airport Plane Spotting Guide
JFK Airport Reviews on LateDeparture.com

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