The History of John F. Kennedy International Airport

‍NEW YORK — New York has been the primary gateway to the United States for centuries. The city has been fueled by enterprise and immigration since its inception, allowing it to become the centerpiece of American historical growth. It has been instrumental in shaping what was once heralded as the “New World” into what it is today. 

Once upon a time, people would crowd the upper decks of ocean liners to catch the first glimpses of the Statue of Liberty as she rose from the mist. But that baton has been handed over from the seas to the skies. 

Today, John F Kennedy International Airport (JFK) is the city’s main gateway, handling a staggering 171,000 passengers a day across approximately 1,200 daily flight movements. The airport has been a catalyst for New York, keeping the city an intense financial centre and a cultural melting pot.

But airports like these don’t spring up overnight. In this video, we will explore the origins of this airport and its evolution into the current facility.

Often known as “Kennedy” or “JFK”, New York’s John F Kennedy Airport is the 13th busiest airport in the world, and the sixth busiest in the United States, handling 62,500,000 passengers in 2023. Located 16 miles (25 km) southeast of downtown Manhattan, it is one of three commercial airports serving New York City directly, sharing airspace with its neighbors, LaGuardia and Newark. 

Known for its immense immigration lines, the airport is the primary entrance to America’s biggest city. Serving six terminals, JFK is operated by 73 passenger airlines and an additional 29 cargo airlines. It is located on a 4,930-acre site and is served by four runways.

Early Days

There has been an airport on this site since 1948, and it was built to alleviate pressure on the already crowded LaGuardia Airport to the north. In 1941, the then-mayor of New York, Fiorello La Guardia, announced that the city had chosen a site on the shores of Jamaica Bay, which would encompass the Idlewild golf course, from which the new airport would take its initial name.

Construction started in 1943 and was opened by Mayor La Guardia and President Harry Truman on July 1, 1948.

Permits for non-American carriers to fly to LaGuardia Airport were subsequently revoked, and international carriers wishing to access New York were forced to switch to Idlewild Airport, making it New York’s new primary gateway. 

However, less than 10 years after Idlewild’s opening, it too was beginning to get overcrowded. With a higher-than-anticipated growth in post-war air travel and the advent of jet travel, the airport’s 55-gate single terminal was starting to get overwhelmed. 

By the end of the decade, Idlewild would have eight terminals, primarily designed by individual airlines for their specific needs, which made the terminals easier to navigate and more customer-friendly. 

This idea stemmed from airlines' criticism of the previous single-terminal operation, which left little room for expansion or flexibility. This is how the airport ended up with the architectural marvel of the iconic Pan Am “worldport,” and the TWA Flight Center, which is now the TWA hotel. 

By the end of the decade, Idlewild was well-prepared for the jet age and would play a significant role in its evolution. Jets, such as the Boeing 707 and Douglas DC-8, began arriving in Ernest in 1958, and would soon become commonplace there, Idlewild was very much playing into New York’s favor as the main gateway to the United States, presenting the city as one of the most modern and progressive places on the planet.

By the beginning of the 1960s, the airport had installed “Jet Bridges” and was the first in the world to do so. This allowed passengers to avoid exposure to the outside elements when boarding their flights and provided much easier step-free access from the terminal to the plane.

This fanfare would be interrupted on the 22nd of November 1963, when news flashed around the world of the assassination of the much-loved president, John F Kennedy, who was gunned down in his limousine while visiting Dallas that afternoon. The country was plunged into shock and mourning for the late president, and New York had been a political stronghold for him during his election. 

As a result, homage was paid to him on Christmas Eve that year, when Idlewild was announced by Mayor Robert F. Wagner to be renamed John F. Kennedy International Airport, the name it still holds to this day.

The airport itself was unaffected by this name change and continued to progress and grow well into the 1960s and the 70’s. In 1970, JFK airport played host to the world’s first commercial Boeing 747 flight, flown by Pan Am’s “Clipper Constitution” to London Heathrow, to great fanfare.

Both JFK and Heathrow had to be extensively modified to accommodate the 747, which was twice the size of Boeing’s next-largest airliner, the 707. In addition to terminal upgrades to handle the anticipated traffic the 747 would bring, runways and taxiways would have to be upgraded to handle the sheer weight of the 747, which weighed approximately 300,000 Lb.

Concorde, Notable Moments

In 1976, JFK was again at the centre of an aviation revolution, this time surrounding the new European supersonic airliner, Concorde. Concorde had experienced great controversy since its first flight in 1969. In New York, much of the city’s populace protested the aircraft’s proposed arrival into JFK on environmental grounds, citing Concorde’s loud and smoky after-burning turbofan engines.

 However, from the perspective of the only two airlines that remained to operate Concorde, British Airways and Air France, New York was the only target market that could enable Concorde to reach its full potential and operate profitably. 

For 19 months, Concorde had been banned from operating from JFK Airport for precisely this reason, reportedly being twice as loud as its peers. But the Concorde pilots devised a clever workaround. Noise tests would be carried out under the departure profile of runway 31L, which involves a steep left-hand turn at just 300 feet to minimize noise over the suburb of Canarsie, known as the “Canarsie Climb.” 

This was where Concorde had been highlighted as an issue at JFK. So, with approval from the British Airline Pilots Association, Concorde pilots would reduce the turn altitude from 300ft to 100ft, citing the aircraft’s excellent flight characteristics and narrow wingspan. The test was conducted on October 20, 1977. 

This modification to the Canarsie Climb allowed Concorde to pass the noise test by “a wide margin,” reportedly not even setting off the equipment, which was positioned on the shores of Canarsie itself. The following day, the ban was lifted, and Concorde was essentially saved from being surplus to requirements. 

New York’s JFK Airport would very quickly become the airport with the highest concentration of Concordes on the ground at any given moment, with services multiple times a day from both Air France and British Airways.

The airport largely remained in the same form until the mid-2000s, when it became apparent that the older buildings were beginning to feel the strain of ever-increasing passenger numbers and larger aircraft. However, that is not to say that the airport’s history was stagnant.

JFK Airport has played host to many notable moments in aviation history, from the downfall of iconic aviation brands to the last flights. Although it did not witness the final flights of Pan Am or TWA, the airport was severely impacted by their losses. 

One loss that JFK stood up for was on October 24, 1963. This day marked the final passenger flight of Concorde, after it had served the airport for 26 years. That day, after speeches and a ceremony British Airways’s hub at Terminal 7, “Speedbird Concorde 2” pushed back from its gate, and taxied to runway 31L, opened its throttles, and lifted off into the golden evening sky, making the iconic Canarsie Climb that had granted it access to fly to the airport all those years ago. 

Concorde had helped propel JFK airport into the American gateway for the rich and famous, and its loss was a loss of part of the airport’s DNA.

Terminals, Hopping, Changing

JFK airport has largely retained its original form since its redesign in the 1950s and 1960s. The growth that the airport has brought to New York has allowed it to become hemmed in on all sides by water and residential spaces. Therefore, while external expansion had been largely off the cards for decades by the 1980s, internal expansion facilitated the merging of many terminals to integrate the airport’s services better. 

These changes came after the airport's requirements had evolved, the buildings had aged, and airlines had come and gone. Many terminals came and went, with a considerable number being demolished to make way for the expansion and renovation of existing terminals. Examples include the 2008 loss of terminals 8 and 9 to make way for the new terminal 8 expansion, which opened in 2022. 

Another notable example is the demolition of Terminal 3. Terminal 3 was one of the many iconic buildings of JFK airport as it was the “Pan Am Worldport”, and was home to the airline’s operations until its demise in 1991, after which Delta Air Lines moved in. 

However, the terminal was closed in 2013 and demolished in 2014 to make way for the expansion of the neighbouring Terminal 4. This was a controversial option, as many New Yorkers saw it as a historic and cultural building; they campaigned to have it restored and preserved. Plans to demolish the terminal proceeded, as keeping it would have negatively impacted JFK’s operating capacity.

One terminal to escape the chop was the TWA Flight Centre. After the previous and only tenant, Trans World Airways, went bankrupt in 2001, the terminal lay abandoned for many years. 

The building that stands today is only part of the original building, with the rest being absorbed into the expanded Terminal 5, however the former entrance and centerpiece is now the TWA Hotel - a somewhat retro themed hotel, featuring 512 rooms, a rooftop viewing area and infinity pool, and a former TWA Lockheed Super Constellation, which is now a cocktail bar. The hotel, whose building was a cultural icon in its own right, was opened on May 15, 2019.

As of 2024, JFK Airport currently has five terminals: Terminals 1, 4, 5, 7, and 8, resulting from continuous redesigns and mergers between terminals. Today, the airport is a hub and focus city for numerous airlines, including American Airlines, Delta Air Lines, JetBlue, and British Airways, among others.

Near Misses

Most recently, JFK airport has played host to one of the many dangerous near misses that American airports have seen in recent years.

On January 13, 2023, Delta Air Lines flight 1943, a Boeing 737-900, was cleared for takeoff on runway 4L. The plane had fortunately not yet reached the point of no return when an American Airlines Boeing 777-200ER entered the runway without clearance ahead of it, after having missed its intended taxiway. 

The quick-thinking Air Traffic Controller told flight 1943 to cancel its takeoff run, and a potentially catastrophic collision was averted.

Future

The future of JFK Airport primarily consists of further redevelopment of the airport’s terminals, as outlined in the “One JFK” plan. For example, terminals 1 and 2 are to be replaced by a single 2.7 million-square-foot building, which will hold 23 international gates. 

Furthermore, Terminal 5 will be connected to the main airport complex via a 1.2 million square-foot building with an additional 12 wide-body gates. Terminals 4 and 8 will also receive 16 and 3 gate expansions, respectively. 

From this, it is clear that the New York Port Authority, which operates the site, is attempting to transform JFK Airport into a world-class hub and create an efficient and coherent airport to help bring its airport and city up to date with the modern era.

New York’s John F Kennedy International Airport is an airport without which New York City could not exist in its current form. For all its faults, it has been instrumental in developing the surrounding city. 

Born out of a need for extra capacity in the New York area, the airport has been constantly evolving to meet passenger demand and establish itself as a world-class gateway for the region. It has been a centerpiece for the great and good of the aviation industry, playing host to big names, such as Pan Am and Concorde, and while these are now relegated to history, JFK is still far from just “any other airport.”