John F. Kennedy International Airport is the primary international airport serving the New York metropolitan area. It is located on the southwestern shore of Long Island, in Queens, New York City, bordering Jamaica Bay. It is the busiest of the three airports in the New York airport system, the sixth-busiest airport in the United States. The airport, which covers , is the largest in the New York metropolitan area. FAA data effective May 15, 2025. Nearly 100 airlines operate from JFK Airport, with nonstop or direct flights to destinations on all six permanently inhabited continents.
JFK Airport is located in the Jamaica neighborhood of Queens, southeast of Midtown Manhattan. The airport features five passenger terminals and four runways. It is primarily accessible by car, bus, shuttle, or other vehicular transit via the JFK Expressway or Interstate 678 (Van Wyck Expressway), or by train. JFK is a hub for American Airlines and Delta Air Lines as well as the primary operating base for JetBlue. The airport is also a former hub for Braniff, Eastern, Flying Tigers, National, Northeast, Northwest, Pan Am, Seaboard World, Tower Air, and TWA.
The facility opened in 1948 as New York International Airport and was commonly known as Idlewild Airport. Following the assassination of John F. Kennedy in 1963, the airport was renamed John F. Kennedy International Airport in tribute to 35th President of the United States John F. Kennedy.
History
Construction What would become known as John F. Kennedy International Airport opened in 1948 as New York International Airport though it was commonly known as Idlewild Airport after the Idlewild Beach Golf Course that it displaced. It was built to relieve LaGuardia Field, which had become overcrowded after its 1939 opening. In late 1941, mayor Fiorello La Guardia announced that the city had tentatively chosen a large area of marshland on Jamaica Bay, which included the Idlewild Golf Course as well as a summer hotel and a landing strip called the Jamaica Sea-Airport, for a new airfield. Title to the land was conveyed to the city at the end of December 1941. Construction began in 1943, though the airport's final layout was not yet decided upon.
About US$60 million was initially spent with governmental funding, but only of the Idlewild Golf Course site 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 died in late 1942. The renaming was vetoed by Mayor La Guardia and reinstated by the New York City Council; in common usage, the airport was still called "Idlewild". In 1944, the New York City Board of Estimate authorized the condemnation of another for Idlewild. The Port of New York Authority (now the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey) leased the Idlewild property from the City of New York in 1947 and maintains this lease today. In March 1948, the City Council changed the official name to New York International Airport, Anderson Field, but the common name remained "Idlewild" until December 24, 1963. The airport was intended as the world's largest and most efficient, with "no confusion and no congestion".
Early operations
The first flight from Idlewild was on July 1, 1948, with the opening ceremony attended by U.S. President Harry S. Truman and Governor of New York Thomas E. Dewey, who were both running for president in that year's presidential election. The Port Authority cancelled foreign airlines' permits to use LaGuardia, forcing them to move to Idlewild during the next couple of years. Idlewild at the time had a single terminal building; by 1949, the terminal building was being expanded to . Further expansions would come in following years, including a control tower in 1952, as well as new and expanded buildings and taxiways.
Idlewild 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 ) is still in use; runway 31L (originally ) opened soon after the rest of the airport and is still in use; runway 1R closed in 1957 and runway 7R closed around 1966. Runway 4 (originally 8,000 ft, now runway 4L) opened June 1949 and runway 4R was added ten years later. A smaller runway 14/32 was built after runway 7R closed and was used until 1990 by general aviation, STOL, and smaller commuter flights.
The first jet airliner to land at Idlewild was an Avro Jetliner flying from Malton Airport in Toronto carrying the world's first cargo of jet airmail on April 18, 1950."First Jet Liner Seen Here Flies From Toronto in Hour; Avro Jet Liner Arrives Here From Canada", The New York Times, April 19, 1950. Accessed December 24, 2024. "The Avro jet liner, the first turbojet transport plane ever flown in the United States, arrived yesterday at New York International Airport, Idlewild, Queens, after a flight from Toronto that took slightly less than one hour.... Carrying three crew members, three passengers and the world's first 'jet-borne' airmail, the four-engined plane set a record for the 365-mile flight from Moulton Airport, Toronto, to Idlewild.""Avro Jet-Liner In New Record; From Toronto Malton Airport Made New. York Ideewild Airport in One Hour", The Daily Gleaner, April 19, 1950. Accessed December 25, 2024, via Newspapers.com. "A silver-colored Canadian-built Avro jetliner landed at New York's Idlewild Airport- at 10:33 A. M., EST,- today after flying from Toronto's Malton Airport in one hour and three minutes." A 1951 policy instituted by the Port Authority effectively prohibited jets from landing at the city's airports.British Airways Board v. Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, The Environmental Law Reporter, decided September 29, 1977. Accessed December 24, 2024. "Thus, in 1951 the Authority adopted a regulation prohibiting use of any of its facilities without permission. This rule vividly demonstrated the Port Authority's determination to compel the manufacture of quieter aircraft, a desire which was soon underscored by its refusal to accord landing rights to certain jet airplanes whose din was deemed intolerable to surrounding communities." After tests demonstrating that it was no noisier than the loudest of the then-current propeller plane, approval was granted for a Sud Aviation Caravelle prototype to be the next jet airliner to land at Idlewild, on May 2, 1957."French Jet Clear To Use Idlewild; Twin-Engine Airliner Passes Noise Test-Will Arrive May 2 on U.S. Tour", The New York Times, April 13, 1957. Accessed December 24, 2024. "France's twin-jet airliner, the Caravelle, has passed a noise test and received permission to operate at New York International Airport, Idlewild, Queens."Hudson, Edward. "French Jet Plane Cracks City's Ban; Caravelle Is First to Land Here After Civil Airport Regulation on Noise Others Were Barred", The New York Times, May 3, 1957. Accessed December 24, 2024. "A French jet airliner broke through New York's own 'sound barrier' yesterday.... The twin-engined plane - exempted from the city's ban against jets - became the first commercial jet to land at a New York City airport. The plane, the 500-mile-an-hour Caravelle, touched down at New York International Airport, Idlewild, Queens, at 3:47 P. M.... Until permission was granted to Sud Aviation on April 12, the bi-state agency had refused entry to jet aircraft at the city's major airports, including the British Comet and the Boeing 707. This policy was adopted formally in 1951 and was aimed at jet planes with asserted intolerable noise characteristics." Later in 1957, the Soviet Union sought approval for two jet-powered Tupolev Tu-104 flights carrying diplomats to land at Idlewild; the Port Authority did not allow them, saying noise tests had to be done first."New Soviet Appeal To Land Jet Plane In City Is Rejected; A Last-Minute Request", The New York Times, September 4, 1957. Accessed December 24, 2024. "The State Department turned down today a new Soviet request for permission to land a Soviet jet airliner at Idlewild rather than at McGuire Air Force Base in New Jersey. The department said the Port of New York Authority would not permit the Soviet planes to land at its Idlewild Airport without advance noise-level tests.... The Soviet Embassy lodged last-minute objections to plans for the two TU-104 jet passenger planes to land at McGuire Air Force Base."
In 1951, the airport averaged 73 daily airline operations (takeoffs plus landings); the October 1951 Airline Guide shows nine domestic departures a day on National and Northwest. Much of Newark Airport's traffic shifted to Idlewild (which averaged 242 daily airline operations in 1952) when Newark was temporarily closed in February 1952 after a series of three plane crashes in the two preceding months in Elizabeth, all of which had fatalities; flights were shifted to Idlewild and La Guardia, which were both able to have planes take off and land over the water, rather than over the densely populated areas surrounding Newark Airport."Newark Airport Stays Closed Pending Results of Inquiries; Safety Group Headed by Rickenbacker Set Up by U. S. and Airlines -- Take-Offs Over Water Pledged at La Guardia, Idlewild; Airport Closed Pending Inquiry", The New York Times, February 13, 1952. Accessed March 27, 2023. "With La Guardia and New York International (Idlewild) Airports in Queens taking over the bulk of Newark's former flights for the time being, it was also agreed to use their runways to enable planes to take off over water or over least-settled areas as much as possible.... The agreements were announced at the Commodore Hotel after a closed-door conference of five and a half hours, called by the Port of New York Authority as a result of three airplane crashes in Elizabeth, N.J., which have taken 116 lives in the last two months and which caused the closing of Newark Airport early Monday morning." The airport remained closed in Newark until November 1952, with new flight patterns that took planes away from Elizabeth.Sharkey, John B. "Newark Liberty International Airport, A Postal History", New Jersey Postal History Society, May 2021. Accessed March 27, 2023. "The airport reopened on November 15, 1952, but only after a new runway was built. The runway directed at the city of Elizabeth was closed forever." L-1049 Constellations and DC-7s appeared between 1951 and 1953 and did not use LaGuardia for their first several years, bringing more traffic to Idlewild. The April 1957 Airline Guide cites a total of 1,283 departures a week, including about 250 from Eastern Air Lines, 150 from National Airlines and 130 from Pan American.
Separate terminals By 1954, Idlewild had the highest volume of international air traffic of any airport globally. The Port of New York Authority originally planned a single 55-gate terminal, but the major airlines did not agree with this plan, arguing that the terminal would be far too small for future traffic. Architect Wallace Harrison then designed a plan for each major airline at the airport to be given its own space to develop its own terminal. 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 plan met airline approval in 1955, with seven terminals initially planned. Five terminals were for individual airlines, one was for three airlines, and one was for international arrivals (National Airlines and British Airways arrived later). In addition, there would be an 11-story control tower, roadways, parking lots, taxiways, and a reflecting lagoon in the center. The airport was designed for aircraft up to gross weightAirports and Air Carriers August 1948. The airport had to be modified in the late 1960s to accommodate the Boeing 747's weight.