With JetBlue’s Partnership with United, JFK’s Terminal Fiefdoms Become More Clear

I am always fascinated by New York’s JFK International Airport. It’s one of the rare examples in the US — the only example? — that has multiple private operators running different terminals. And in the past, that has made for some very strange bedfellows. But the airport’s $19 billion plan to remake itself is finally showing how most airline locations are starting to fall into place. The recent addition of United to Terminal 6 as part of its JetBlue deal just cements it even further.

In the end, JFK will effectively have three terminal fiefdoms spread across five actual terminals: Terminal 1, 4, 5, 6, and 8. Yes, the numbering could use some work, but in reality, this is creating a few different clusters for the various airline groups and their key partners which will give JFK a coherence it hasn’t ever really had.

Terminals 1 and 4 will both share duty as the terminals for Delta and its friends. It will also have a sizable presence of cats and dogs. Meanwhile, Terminals 5 and 6 becomes the JetBlue + United and friends operation. And then Terminal 8 is American and friends. Are there exceptions? Absolutely. But let’s talk through some of this in more detail. First, I’ve created this map:

Terminals 1 and 4

In the past, Terminal 4 and Terminal 1 were the big international carrier operations. It is where the cats and dogs lived. It was Terminals 2 and 3 that made up Delta’s operation, inherited from Pan Am. But T4 was extended to a 300-mile long concourse along with another shorter one, and both T2 and T3 were demolished. Now, the existing T1 is in the process of being rebuilt in multiple phases so they can keep the existing T1 running.

Delta’s entire operation is in T4, mostly on the long B concourse but also at the ground-level gates that were added at the end of the A concourse relatively recently. It has many of its equity partners there with it. Meanwhile, Air France and Korean have long been in Terminal 1, and they will continue to be there. KLM will actually move over from T4 to join Air France when the new building is ready.

There are still plenty of cats and dogs in T1, including several Star Alliance carriers. The way I drew this had Delta partners on one side of the terminal and the others on the other side, but I don’t know that to be true. They will all be mixed in somewhere.

But it is true that in T4, most of the non-Delta aligned flights operate from the A gates, further away from the bulk of Delta’s operation.

Even if some of Delta’s most important partners are in T1, it won’t be too far away. I’d place a bet that we’ll see the return of the JFK Jitney that used to transport people between Delta flights in T2 and T4.

Terminals 5 and 6

Today, Terminal 5 is JetBlue’s entirely. (Yeah, ok, Cape Air parks there too.) But Terminal 6 is being built on the footprint of the old Sundrome which served as JetBlue’s original terminal as well as on top of the still semi-functioning Terminal 7. The facilities will be easily connected, and JetBlue will use some gates in T6.

Now that JetBlue and United are tying up, when United returns to JFK it will use Terminal 6. This is already where Lufthansa Group, Air Canada, and ANA have committed to operate when it opens starting next year. It’s a perfect match.

There are some cats and dogs here, including Frontier and some other international carriers with very limited frequencies, but this really is about JetBlue, United, and partners more than anything else.

Terminal 8

American built its big, fancy Terminal 8 when it still had hope of being a major player in New York. Now it has mostly given up that dream, instead deciding to fill T8 with its partners. It now hosts all of American’s joint venture partners except for Aer Lingus (in T6, presumably because it saw a rainbow end there and is looking for a pot of gold). It also includes key partners Alaska/Hawaiian, China Southern, and Qatar.

Most of these airlines are exiles from Terminal 7 as that building marches toward being shut down. That was BA’s terminal for ages, and Alaska had used it in recent years as well (since around the time United left). T7’s days are numered, so a small retrofit to T8 was a great investment to consolidate everyone in one terminal.

Still TBD

The image I put above is about commitments. Obviously, T6 isn’t open today, so these airlines aren’t all operating there. But this shows where everyone is committed to be eventually. Then there are the ones in black boxes.

There are several airlines that are currently in T1 but do not show as having committed as tenants of the new T1. This doesn’t mean it won’t happen, but it just hasn’t happened yet… or at least hasn’t been made public.

Were I a betting man, I’d say ITA will move over to T6 now that it is a part of the Lufthansa Group empire. And Flair may also want to move somewhere since I don’t believe the new T1 will be friendly to airlines that don’t need to use customs facilities.

Meanwhile, there are three airlines which are still operating in T7 that don’t seem to have new homes yet. The biggest of these is Icelandair. There is always Sun Country… and HiSky, which nobody has ever heard of until right now. It’s a Romanian airline which flies to… wait for it… Romania. They’re all going to have to find new homes at some point.

The Weird Outliers

In the end, this creates three solid clusters with most of the cats and dogs going into Terminals 1 and 4, though there will be some in every terminal. That’s not a surprise thanks to the unique nature of operations at JFK from so many different global airlines.

But there are some airlines that seemed hell-bent on ruining this grand plan. They are just located in the wrong place. Actually, there are two in particular that I find very confusing.

1) Air New Zealand is in Terminal 1. It is a joint venture partner with United, but to be fair, there will be absolutely no connecting traffic between the two airlines at JFK. So while it is confusing to see two JV partners so far apart, it has no real impact.

2) Aer Lingus is in Terminal 6. This feels like a legacy move since it used to operate from JetBlue’s T5 and had become close with that airline. But Aer Lingus is owned by IAG — the same company that owns British Airways, Iberia, and LEVEL — and it is part of the joint venture with American. You would think it would move over to T8 at some point, but then again, Aer Lingus seems like the kind of airline that might go rogue.

Considering the seemingly arbitrary way that airlines ended up finding their homes at JFK over the years, this is about as coherent as one would ever dare hope.