John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK) Review

JFK is one of the nation's oldest airport and its design shows.  There are eight terminls, arrnaged in a circle.  Except for Terminals 2 and 3 (both Delta), each terminal is a complete stand alone faciltiy...connected by either the airtrain or a shuttle bus.  All inter-terminal connections are outside security.  While this might sound like a pain, it only affects travelers who are changing airlines while connecting tbetween a domestic and an international flight on non-US airlines.  For those flying American and Delta, your connections will be in the same terminal, so its very easy.

The new American Airlines Terminal (Terminal 8) is wonderful and very user friendly.  Terminal 1 (lots of international flights) is also rather new and very easy to use.  Terminal 5 (formerly TWA now jetBlue) was recently rennovated and gets high marks from users.  Terminal 4 was also rebuilt within the last decade and is far superior to the old terminal.

For those who live in the New York area, it can be either easy or had to get to (good road connections, but NYC traffic), well connected to the New York City and Long Island mass transit systems.  If your journey ends at JFK, there is a flat rate charge for a taxi into Manhattan (tip and toll extra).

The AirTrain, which opened in December 2003, connects the terminals with each other, the Long-Term Parking Lots, the Rental Cars, some hotels, and both the New York City Mass Transit System and the Long Island Railroad.  It is free (except for the connections to the Subway and the LIRR).  The Interterminal line runs in the opposite direction from the outside connections, so its easy (and fairly quick) to move between terminals.