About JFK Airport: from Idlewild to New York's main gateway

What is JFK Airport?

JFK Airport is John F. Kennedy International Airport, the busiest international gateway in the United States, on Jamaica Bay in Queens, New York. The City of New York owns it, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey runs it, and around 70 airlines fly from its five terminals to every inhabited continent. The picture below is how it is running today.

How is JFK running right now?

JFK looks normal right now. Flights are running close to schedule. Our live feed is tracking 232 departures in the current window, with 0% delayed or cancelled. The full picture, with weather, FAA status, and transit alerts: is JFK delayed today. The history below explains why the airport works the way it does.

What are the key facts about JFK?

Those five terminals are where the airport's whole story shows on the ground.

What terminals does JFK have?

JFK has five active terminals: 1, 4, 5, 7, and 8, arranged around a central loop and linked only by the AirTrain. The missing numbers are demolished history: each gap marks a terminal that outlived its era. Airlines group by alliance, so the fastest route to yours: find your terminal before you leave.

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A walk through JFK's terminals: what the loop, the AirTrain, and the terminal patchwork look like on the ground. Video: Travel Beauty on YouTube.

Why do some sources say JFK has eight terminals?

Because they are out of date, and some of them are sources you would expect to be right. New York City's own official tourism site currently states that JFK has "four runways, eight terminals and more than 150 gates." The eight-terminal figure describes the airport before the rebuild: Terminal 2 closed and was demolished, Terminal 3 went in 2013, and Terminal 6 was demolished and is being rebuilt as part of the current programme. Five terminals are open today: 1, 4, 5, 7 and 8.

If you are counting gates or planning a transfer, count five. This is the single most repeated out-of-date fact about JFK, and it matters because someone reading "eight terminals" will assume their terminal exists when it may have been knocked down.

How big is JFK, in numbers?

JFK runs four runways on roughly 5,000 acres, 13 feet above sea level. The runway figures below come from the FAA facility record for KJFK, effective 6 August 2026, which is the authoritative source rather than a travel-site summary:

Runway 13R/31L at 14,511 feet is one of the longest commercial runways in North America, which is part of why JFK handles the aircraft it does. Around the operation sit roughly 35,000 workers and more than 80 airlines, generating an estimated $30.1 billion a year in economic activity across New York and New Jersey.

Was JFK really activated in 1939?

The FAA facility record gives an activation date of January 1939, while the airport opened to commercial traffic on 1 July 1948. Both are correct, and they measure different things: the 1939 record predates the international airport and covers the airfield on the site, while 1948 is when New York International Airport, the place everyone called Idlewild, actually began operating. Sources that quote one without the other are not wrong so much as incomplete.

How the airport ended up with this patchwork of terminals is the history question.

What is the history of JFK Airport?

The history of JFK Airport starts with a golf course. New York built its new international airport on the Idlewild course beside Jamaica Bay because LaGuardia was already full two years after opening. Commercial flights began on July 1, 1948, and for fifteen years everyone called the airport Idlewild no matter what the signs said. In its "Terminal City" era, each major airline built its own architectural showpiece terminal, which is why JFK never had one unified building. One month after President Kennedy's assassination, the airport took his name, and the initials became some of the most recognized three letters in travel.

1. 1948Opens on July 1 as New York International Airport, built on the Idlewild golf course site to relieve LaGuardia. Everyone calls it Idlewild.
2. 1962Eero Saarinen's winged TWA Flight Center opens, the terminal that made airport architecture famous.
3. 1963Renamed John F. Kennedy International Airport in December, one month after the president's assassination.
4. 1970Pan Am flies the world's first commercial Boeing 747 service from JFK to London, and the jumbo-jet era starts here.
5. 2003AirTrain opens, finally linking every terminal to the subway and LIRR.
6. 2019The landmarked TWA Flight Center reopens as the TWA Hotel.
7. 2026The New Terminal One opens its first 14 gates, the biggest piece of a $19 billion rebuild.
8. 2030New Terminal One reaches full size: 23 gates, the largest terminal at JFK.

That last pair of milestones is not history yet; it is the construction outside the window today.

What is being built at JFK right now?

The Port Authority is rebuilding JFK around two mega-terminals in a $19 billion program, the largest in the airport's history. The $9.5 billion New Terminal One is rising on the sites of the old Terminals 1, 2, and 3; its first 14 gates open in 2026, and at full size in 2030 it becomes JFK's largest terminal with 23 gates. For travelers the rebuild means gate and airline reassignments with little notice, which is why every airline page on this site carries a live board rather than a printed answer. Construction is also the reason a few famous survivors stand out more than ever.

The moments aviation people remember

JFK is where the jumbo-jet era began: Pan Am flew the first commercial Boeing 747 service from JFK to London in January 1970. British Airways and Air France Concordes made JFK to Europe their signature route for 27 years. And Saarinen's TWA Flight Center, the most photographed terminal ever built, still sits at the heart of the airport, reborn as a hotel where you can sleep inside 1962.

Frequently asked questions

What does JFK stand for? JFK stands for John F. Kennedy, the president assassinated in November 1963; the airport was renamed for him the following month.

Who owns JFK Airport? JFK is owned by the City of New York and operated by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey under a long-term lease.

Is JFK the busiest airport in New York? JFK is the busiest airport in the New York area and America's busiest international gateway, with 63.3 million passengers in 2024.

How do I find my terminal? Use the terminal lookup, then confirm on live departures from JFK on the day you fly.

Sources: Port Authority of NY & NJ traffic reports and JFK redevelopment program; airport history per PANYNJ and contemporary records. Live figures above come from this site's own tracking feed.