Edited by: TJVNews.com
It appears that the grand makeover that was planned for the busiest terminal at the John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York will have to take a back seat for a while. According to a recent report in the Wall Street Journal, a revised deal with the public agency that operates Terminal 4 says that it will scale back and delay plans for a $3.8 billion redevelopment of the terminal.
JFK Airport is operated by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. The first phase of the modernization process will be undertaken by the company that leases Terminal 4 and work is expected to begin before the end of the year. The refurbishing of the terminal will run on a more limited $1.5B budget, as was reported by the Wall Street Journal.
A second construction phase is also a possibility and according to the WSJ these plans are similar to the original design plans. This phase, should it be carried out, will be delayed for several years as the industry waits with bated breath for air travel to reach pre-pandemic levels.
The Post Authority of New York and New Jersey, which not only operates JFK airport but also LaGuardia and Newark, initiated the delay in the $15 billion makeover last year, as the Covid-19 pandemic left the airline industry in shambles.
The WSJ reported that Seth Lehman, an analyst at Fitch Ratings, said the renegotiated contract is a positive sign for the Port Authority. “It’s a good sign that redevelopment in general at JFK seems to no longer be postponed indefinitely,” Lehman said, according to the WSJ.
The six terminals that comprise JFK airport will be replaced at a later date by four larger and more modern buildings, as was reported by the WSJ. The much needed upgrades now seem to be delayed for a number of years, however, prior to the advent of the coronavirus pandemic the construction on the airport terminals was to have been completed by 2025.
The report indicated officials from the Port Authority are currently renegotiation process of deals with other private-sector consortia of airlines, terminal operators and developers that are financing the majority of the airport-wide developments.
This past Thursday, board members of the Port Authority approved the new Terminal 4 contract at a board meeting. Rick Cotton, the executive director of the Port Authority, said he was disappointed that the pandemic had forced a 60% reduction in budget for the terminal redevelopment in the near term, according to the WSJ report. He did say that the approval vote on the Terminal 4 contract illustrated confidence in the future of JFK Airport as a major international travel hub and of the airline industry making a significant comeback after more than a year of practically no business.
In 2019, Terminal 4 accounted for approximately one-third of the 62 million passengers who came through JFK that year.
WSJ reported that Terminal 4’s operator has said it believes air traffic may not return to pre-pandemic levels until 2024. The terminal is operated by JFK International Air Terminal LLC, a partnership between Netherlands-based Royal Schiphol Group and Delta Air Lines Inc