Air New Zealand Becomes Latest Airline To Commit To JFK’s New International Terminal

Air New Zealand has committed to operating out of New York John F. Kennedy International Airport’s (JFK) new international terminal, the massive facility that is the largest and most expensive component of JFK’s $19 billion rebuild.

Led by global airport developer and operator Ferrovial, a private consortium is financing, building and will then manage the New Terminal One (NTO), which is slated to open next year. The consortium will run the terminal under a long-term lease with the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey that extends through 2060. The port has oversight of JFK, New York LaGuardia and Newark airports.

Aside from Air New Zealand, other airlines that have signed on to use NTO include Air France, Air Serbia, Etihad Airways, EVA Air, LOT Polish Airlines, Neos, SAS, Turkish Airlines and Philippine Airlines.

The terminal—with a price tag of $9 billion for the first phase of construction scheduled to finish in 2026—will have 14 gates at opening, with plans to grow to 23 gates by 2030. NTO will be exclusively for international carriers operating to JFK.

NTO is being built on land occupied by the current Terminal 1, the closed Terminal 2 and the former Terminal 3. It will span 2.4 million ft.2.

Air New Zealand currently operates out of the airport’s existing Terminal 1, flying 3X-weekly between Auckland and JFK with a Boeing 787-9. Flight time is 17 hr.

NTO CEO Jennifer Aument told Aviation Week in an interview last year that the terminal will have a mix of international airlines, including some already serving the existing Terminal 1, those serving other terminals at JFK as well as newcomers to the airport. A total of 30 airlines are expected to use the terminal.

“We expect significant amounts of traffic and service to the Europe and Asia markets, and then also strong service to Latin America and Africa,” she said. “We’re obviously pulling a lot of that from airlines now serving JFK, but we also believe we’ve got a lot of interest from airlines that would be first-timers to JFK.”