John F Kennedy International Airport

John F. Kennedy International is the United States' largest gateway by international passenger volume, handling more trans-atlantic traffic than any other airport in the country and ranking among the top three Atlantic-basin hubs alongside LHR and CDG. JFK serves 121 airlines on 507 routes to 239 nonstop destinations, with the distinction that its non-domestic traffic share — roughly half — is higher than any other top-tier U.S. airport except MIA. The 4,930-acre (1,995 ha) site in Jamaica Bay, Queens, is one of the largest airport footprints in the eastern United States. JFK's six-terminal structure reflects its unusual history as a multi-airline anchor: Delta Air Lines consolidates operations in Terminals 4 and 1; American Airlines occupies Terminal 8; JetBlue uses Terminal 5; and the historic TWA Flight Center, Eero Saarinen's 1962 masterpiece, has been preserved as the lobby of the TWA Hotel rather than demolished. A major $19B redevelopment is replacing Terminals 1 and 6 with a new 2.4M sq ft consolidated facility opening in phases from 2026. Four runways arranged in two crossing pairs include the 14,511 ft (4,423 m) 13R/31L, the longest commercial runway in the New York metropolitan area and long enough to handle any aircraft type under any atmospheric condition. The hub economics at JFK differ from Atlanta or Dallas: it is predominantly an origin-and-destination airport for the New York metropolitan market of 20M people, with connection banks a secondary feature. That demographic base — the largest single market in the Americas — is what sustains a destination list that reaches every inhabited continent via nonstop service, including unusual city pairs like Cape Town, Lagos, Tehran (historically), and Auckland.