New York JFK Airport Guide: America’s Transatlantic Front Door
New York JFK Airport explained: four runways, five terminals in flux, American, Delta and JetBlue hubs, the AirTrain and the best spotting spots.
By The Aviation Hub
7 min read
Updated October 20, 2026 
New York JFK Airport is the largest international gateway in the United States and the busiest of the three big airports serving New York City. It occupies a wide stretch of filled marshland on Jamaica Bay in Queens, about 16 miles (26 km) from Midtown Manhattan. Around 62.6 million passengers used the field in 2025. Nearly 100 airlines fly here to every inhabited continent, and American, Delta and JetBlue all run major hubs.
New York JFK Airport at a Glance
The codes are JFK for IATA and KJFK for ICAO. The field lies in southeastern Queens at an elevation of just 4 m (13 ft), which is why the approaches skim the bay. The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey owns and operates it, as it does LaGuardia and Newark. Five passenger terminals are active, with two more under construction.
Four runways in two parallel pairs handle the traffic. American Airlines and Delta Air Lines run hubs, JetBlue has its largest base, and the cargo carriers Atlas Air and Kalitta Air are also based here. Norse Atlantic Airways operates a long haul base. Terminal maps, live flight status and parking rates are available on the airport’s official website.
How New York’s Idlewild Became Kennedy
The airport opened on 1 July 1948 as New York International Airport, built to relieve an overcrowded LaGuardia. Everybody called it Idlewild after the golf course it had displaced, and the name stuck for 15 years. The site was designed around a central terminal area with each airline building its own terminal, which produced a ring of architectural landmarks including Eero Saarinen’s TWA Flight Center and the Pan Am Worldport.
On 24 December 1963 the city renamed the airport for President John F. Kennedy, a month after his assassination. The renamed airport first took the code KIA. It changed to JFK in 1968 to avoid any link with the military term killed in action. Concorde flew scheduled supersonic services from here between 1977 and 2003, and the first passenger Airbus A380 flight to the United States arrived in 2007.
The individual airline terminals became the problem at New York JFK Airport. They aged badly and could not be joined up. The Worldport was demolished in 2013 despite protests, and Terminal 4 replaced the old International Arrivals Building in 2001. The current rebuilding programme is the largest in the airport’s history.
Runways at New York JFK Airport
New York JFK Airport has four runways arranged as two parallel pairs, three of them concrete and one asphalt. Runway 13R/31L is the giant at 4,423 m (14,511 ft), the third longest commercial runway in North America. Its parallel, Runway 13L/31R, is 3,048 m (10,000 ft) long. Both run from northwest to southeast across the bay side of the field.
The second pair runs from southwest to northeast. Runway 04L/22R is 3,682 m (12,079 ft) and Runway 04R/22L is 2,560 m (8,400 ft). All four are 61 m wide. The most common configuration lands on 31R and 31L and departs from 31L, or lands on the 22s and departs from 22R and 31L. Wind from the bay often pushes operations onto the 13s, which brings the famous Canarsie approach over Brooklyn with its curving final turn onto 13L.
Slot controls limit movements at busy times, and the airport shares its airspace with LaGuardia and Newark, so delays spread quickly between the three. The long 13R/31L handles the heaviest departures, including the Singapore Airlines Airbus A350-900ULR flights, the world’s longest.
Terminals and Airlines
Terminal 1 at New York JFK Airport houses several SkyTeam and Star Alliance long haul carriers including Air France, Korean Air and Lufthansa. It is living on borrowed time, since the New Terminal One is rising on the neighbouring site of the demolished Terminal 2. Terminal 4, operated by a Schiphol Group company, is Delta’s hub with 48 gates and the base for KLM, Emirates, Etihad and Singapore Airlines.
Terminal 5 is JetBlue’s home, with 29 gates and the restored TWA Flight Center next door, now the TWA Hotel. Terminal 7 was British Airways’ terminal for decades before the airline moved to Terminal 8 in 2022. It still hosts a dwindling group of carriers including Aer Lingus, Icelandair and Norse Atlantic while the new Terminal 6 is built next door. Terminal 8 is the American Airlines hub and the Oneworld home, with British Airways, Iberia, Qantas, Cathay Pacific and Japan Airlines.
Routes and Destinations
London Heathrow is the single most important route from New York JFK Airport, served by American, British Airways, Delta, JetBlue and Virgin Atlantic with more than a dozen daily departures. Paris, Madrid, Rome, Tel Aviv and the Gulf hubs fill the rest of the transatlantic and Middle East schedule. Across the Pacific, Tokyo, Seoul, Hong Kong and Singapore anchor the Asian network.
Domestic traffic leans towards the long transcontinental routes. Los Angeles and San Francisco are the backbone of the premium domestic market, where American, Delta and JetBlue fight with lie flat seats on narrow bodies and wide bodies alike. Florida and the Caribbean provide the volume. Cargo is significant, with about 1.56 million US tons handled in 2025 and large freight operations from Atlas, Kalitta, Polar and the integrators.
Getting to and from New York JFK Airport
AirTrain JFK is the spine of the ground transport system. The elevated people mover loops every terminal and the car parks before running to Jamaica station, for the Long Island Rail Road and the E, J and Z subway lines, or to Howard Beach for the A train. The AirTrain fare is around $8.50, and the subway on top is about $3, which makes the Howard Beach route the cheapest way into Manhattan at roughly an hour. Jamaica and the LIRR get you to Penn Station or Grand Central in about 35 minutes.
Yellow taxis charge a flat fare of $70 to Manhattan plus tolls and surcharges, and app based rides pay an airport access fee. The Van Wyck Expressway and the JFK Expressway feed the central terminal area, and traffic on the Van Wyck is often slower than the train. Local buses serve Terminal 8 and the Lefferts Boulevard AirTrain station. Parking ranges from short stay garages at each terminal to the cheaper long term lot on the AirTrain loop.
Spotting and Photography
New York JFK Airport does not have an official viewing terrace, but the geography helps. The TWA Hotel’s rooftop pool deck and runway facing rooms overlook the 4L/22R departures and the Terminal 5 apron. Bayswater Point State Park in Far Rockaway faces arrivals on 04R across the bay, with 04L further off. Rockaway Boulevard near Brookville Boulevard puts you close to arrivals on 22L and departures on 4L.
Morning light favours the eastern and bay side locations, and late afternoon suits the parks to the north. The Canarsie approach onto 13L is the one to photograph if the wind allows, with aircraft banking low over Brooklyn’s rooftops. Port Authority police are active around the perimeter, so stay in the public parks, keep away from fences and expect questions if you linger near cargo areas.
What Comes Next
The New Terminal One is the headline project, a $9.5 billion international terminal that began construction in September 2022. Its first 14 gates and the arrivals hall come first, and the full terminal with 23 gates should be complete by 2030. Terminal 6, a $4.2 billion building backed by JetBlue and Vantage Airport Group, is rising next to Terminal 5, ahead of the demolition of Terminal 7, and opens in phases with completion by 2028.
Terminal 4 and Terminal 8 have both been extended, and a $100 million refresh of Terminal 5 was announced in 2025. The runways will stay as they are, and so will the slot controls and the airspace squeeze. New York JFK Airport is swapping its patchwork of ageing terminals for a handful of large modern ones, and it will be a far better place to fly from by the end of the decade. See where it sits among the world’s hubs on the Airports of the World map.
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