New York JFK Airport

If any airport deserves the title “gateway to the world,” it is JFK. On Jamaica Bay in southern Queens, airlines from Europe, Asia, Africa, the Middle East and Latin America land in a single day – plus the three big home airlines Delta, American and JetBlue. For spotters JFK is both a must-visit and a challenge: four runways in two directions, a permanent construction site at the terminals and a piece of aviation history you can walk into today as a hotel guest.

From golf course to world airport

In the early 1940s it was clear that LaGuardia, New York’s only major airport at the time, would not be able to cope with growing air traffic. The city chose a flat, marshy site on Jamaica Bay that was home, among other things, to the Idlewild golf course. Construction began in 1943, and on July 1, 1948, the airport officially opened as New York International Airport. The name of the golf course stuck anyway – for generations of travelers it was simply “Idlewild.”

On December 24, 1963, a good month after the assassination in Dallas, the airport was named after the assassinated President John F. Kennedy. Since then the abbreviation JFK has stood for the airport worldwide – on baggage tags as well as in pop culture.

The era of airline terminals

Unlike most European airports, JFK did not grow around one central terminal. From the late 1950s each major US airline built its own building around the International Arrivals Building, which opened in 1957. Two of them became icons: the Worldport of Pan Am with its huge, floating canopy from 1960 and the TWA Flight Center by architect Eero Saarinen from 1962, whose curved concrete shell recalls a bird taking off.

Aviation made history several times from JFK. On January 22, 1970, Pan Am launched the first scheduled flight of a Boeing 747 on the New York–London route – the beginning of the jumbo era, which the article on the history of the Boeing 747 tells in detail. From November 1977, Air France and British Airways landed the Concorde in New York on schedule; the supersonic jet’s last scheduled flight ended on October 24, 2003. More on this is in the history of the Concorde.

Farewell to the classics

With the end of many big US airlines, their terminals disappeared too. TWA was absorbed by American Airlines in 2001, and the Saarinen building then stood empty for years. The Pan Am Worldport, last used by Delta as Terminal 3, closed in 2013 and was demolished. The TWA Flight Center, by contrast, was preserved: today it is the lobby of the TWA Hotel, which opened in May 2019 behind the building where JetBlue had moved into its new Terminal 5 in 2008.

Four runways, two directions

If you come from European hubs with parallel runways, you have to adjust at JFK. The airport has four runways arranged as two pairs in different directions. One pair runs from southwest to northeast, the other from northwest to southeast. The terminals are in the center, framed by a ring road, and the runways extend to the shores of Jamaica Bay.

Which runways are active at a given time depends mainly on the wind, but also on traffic at the neighboring airports LaGuardia and Newark, whose arrival and departure routes share the airspace with those of JFK. Often aircraft land on one pair and take off on the other – or one runway of a pair is used for landings and the second for takeoffs. How to judge wind and runway direction before you set out is explained in the article Understanding runway direction at airports.

The Canarsie Approach

A special feature is the approach to runway 13L. It begins at the Canarsie beacon in southern Brooklyn and follows a series of approach lights that guide aircraft onto the runway in a curve. For observers this is an exciting sight, because the aircraft don’t arrive on a long straight line but bank around over residential areas and water. Whether this approach is in use at a given time is decided by air traffic control depending on weather and traffic.

Three home airlines and the whole world

JFK is a hub for three big US carriers at once. Delta Air Lines has its New York hub in Terminal 4, together with partners from SkyTeam. The terminal replaced the old International Arrivals Building in 2001. American Airlines is in Terminal 8, together with partners from oneworld such as British Airways and Qatar Airways. And JetBlue has its main base in Terminal 5 – the New York airline flies from here within the US, to the Caribbean and, with Airbus narrowbody jets, across the Atlantic.

On top of that come carriers from nearly every region of the world. Gulf airlines like Emirates and Qatar Airways, European network carriers like Lufthansa, Air France and Turkish Airlines, plus airlines from Asia and Latin America. How the individual airlines are distributed across the terminals keeps changing because of the ongoing redevelopment.

What you realistically see

The widebody share is exceptionally high for an airport of this size. In the afternoon and evening, when the transatlantic flights to Europe lift off, one long-haul jet follows the next: the Boeing 777-300ER, Boeing 787-9, Airbus A350-900 and the A330 family are part of everyday life. On shorter routes JetBlue’s A321neo, A320 and A220-300 dominate, as well as regional jets like the Embraer E175, flying for the regional brands of Delta and American.

Cargo traffic comes on top. In 2025, according to the Port Authority, JFK handled around 1.6 million short tons of cargo, or just under 1.5 million metric tons. Besides belly cargo in passenger aircraft, numerous cargo airlines are active at the airport, including Atlas Air and Kalitta Air with widebody freighters, plus the cargo divisions of several international airlines.

The major construction site: new Terminals 1 and 6

JFK has been undergoing a ground-up rebuild for several years. The Port Authority puts the entire program at around 19 billion US dollars, most of it privately financed. At its heart are two new terminals and a new road network around the central terminal area.

• New Terminal 1: It is being built in the south of the terminal ring on, among other sites, the grounds of the old Terminal 2, which closed and was demolished in early 2023. In total 23 gates for international airlines are planned, to be completed in several phases by the end of the decade. According to media reports, the start date of the first phase has slipped.
• New Terminal 6: It is growing on the site of the former Terminals 6 and 7 next to Terminal 5 and will be connected to it. Ten gates are planned, nine of them for widebody aircraft. Terminal 7 will give way to the new building as construction progresses.
• Terminals 4 and 8: Delta and American have modernized and expanded their terminals in parallel.

For you as a spotter that means two things. First, airlines change terminals, and with them the positions where you see them on the apron. Second, access roads and parking options around the terminal ring keep changing. Before every visit, check the current notices on the airport’s website.

Spotting at JFK

There is no official visitor park with a hill like in Munich at JFK. Spotters therefore turn to two kinds of locations: the TWA Hotel in the middle of the terminal area and public roads, parks and waterfront paths around the sprawling grounds.

The TWA Hotel

The most convenient legal vantage point is the TWA Hotel. The former TWA Flight Center sits right in front of Terminal 5, and through the large window areas you look onto the aprons and the rolling traffic. On the roof is an infinity pool that, according to the hotel, looks onto runway 04L/22R; non-guests pay extra for the pool. In front of the building stands a restored Lockheed L-1649 Starliner, the last variant of the Constellation, which serves as the cocktail bar “Connie.”

For frame-filling pictures the hotel is not the ideal place – glass panes, distances and reflections set limits. As an introduction, for bad-weather days and for the atmosphere of the jet-set era, however, it is unbeatable. All details on access, viewing directions and light are in the spot guide to the TWA Hotel at JFK Airport.

Around the grounds

The classic approach shots are taken outside the fence: on roads, in parks and on waterfront paths in the residential areas of Queens and on Jamaica Bay. Which side works depends solely on the active configuration – with four runways in two directions there are correspondingly many possible approach axes. So plan several options and decide only in the morning based on wind and flight tracking.

Getting there with the AirTrain

Since December 17, 2003, the AirTrain JFK has connected the terminals with each other and with the city’s public transit. Within the airport the ride is free – handy if you want to switch between the TWA Hotel, the terminals and the parking lots. Outside the grounds, one line leads to Jamaica, where you transfer to the Long Island Rail Road and several subway lines, the other to Howard Beach for the subway A line. A fee is charged when entering or exiting at these two stations.

For a spotting day without a rental car this is ideal: in the morning by subway and AirTrain to the airport, during the day shuttle between the terminals by AirTrain. Only for positions outside the grounds do you additionally need a bus, taxi or ride service.

JFK in comparison

In the New York metropolitan area, JFK shares traffic with two other airports. Newark Airport in neighboring New Jersey is the hub of United Airlines and complements JFK with a completely different airline picture. LaGuardia in Queens handles mainly domestic flights; there, Planeview Park is a popular spot for approach shots. Together the three airports make up one of the densest air traffic systems in the world.

Among the big US airports, JFK has a clear profile: Atlanta Airport counts more passengers but is strongly shaped by Delta connecting traffic. Chicago O’Hare Airport and Los Angeles Airport are also international hubs, yet hardly any airport bundles as many long-haul airlines from as many countries as JFK. On the other side of the Atlantic, London Heathrow Airport is the counterpart – the London–New York route is one of the most important long-haul connections in the world.

New York for aviation fans

A spotting trip to New York combines well with museum visits – the article Plane spotting in New York collects more locations in the city. At the Intrepid Museum on the Hudson River stands the British Airways Concorde G-BOAD, plus the space shuttle test vehicle Enterprise on the flight deck of the former aircraft carrier. And in the TWA Hotel itself you meet the jet-set era at every turn – from the lobby to the Constellation out front.

Conclusion

JFK is not an airport where you simply stand on a hill and wait. Four runways in two directions, a permanent construction site at the terminals and the lack of an official visitor park demand planning. In return, the airport rewards you with an airline mix that hardly any other place in the world offers – from Delta, American and JetBlue to carriers from every continent.

Whoever sorts out the configuration, light and long-haul waves beforehand and uses the TWA Hotel as a base experiences one of the most exciting spotting days at JFK – a touch of Idlewild nostalgia included.