Literally pushing aside a 700-ton piece of the past to make room for the security-focused present, crews are building a 26-gate, $750-million new terminal in tight space at John F. Kennedy International Airport for the rapidly growing low-cost carrier JetBlue Airways.
JetBlue has a 30-year lease on the site and will repay the project cost to the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which used general obligation bonds to fund it. The new 650,000-sq-ft, Y-shaped Terminal 5 is scheduled to open this September and accommodate up to 20 million annual passengers. With it, JetBlue will move from the 28-acre space it currently occupies to 72 acres that can handle up to 250 flights a day. JetBlue already accounts for 30% of all flights at JFK, notes Richard Smyth, JetBlue vice president of JFK redevelopment.