John F. Kennedy International Airport is the busiest international gateway in the United States, laid out as a ring of separate airline terminals in Queens, about 16 miles from Midtown Manhattan. It is a hub for Delta and JetBlue and a focus city for American, and it opened in 1948 under the name Idlewild. The current schedule feed lists 208 airports in 84 countries connected to New York.
Eero Saarinen's swooping 1962 TWA Flight Center still stands at the center of the ring — closed as a terminal, it reopened in 2019 as a hotel with its original split-flap departure board and sunken lounge intact.
John F Kennedy International Airport is the 23rd busiest airport in the world — it handled 62,629,455 passengers in 2025, according to ACI World's annual ranking.
The most frequently served routes for John F Kennedy International Airport connect to Los Angeles (LAX), Boston (BOS) and Raleigh/Durham (RDU).
The longest connected route for John F Kennedy International Airport reaches Sydney (SYD). This flight covers a distance of 9,950 miles (16,014 km).