Remember what the traffic was like in New York when LaGuardia was under construction? Things likely will be just as bad this summer, at the corner where a $19 billion renovation project at John F. Kennedy International Airport meets hordes of travelers heading on vacation.
“We apologize in advance,” said Rick Cotton, Executive Director of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, about the summer travel season at New York’s busiest airport. “This summer we expect to set a record for summer travel through JFK and we expect to be absolutely at the peak of construction activity at the airport.”
And it’s not likely to be over quickly. The project at JFK—the largest that any US airport has ever undertaken—is not expected to be finished until 2030.
In the meantime, the Port Authority issued an “urgent appeal” to passengers to leave extra time, park in remote lots and consider public transportation, such as AirTrain at Jamaica Station or Howard Beach or the Long Island Rail Road to Jamaica station to the AirTrain. “We are pleading with people to access the airport by not coming into the close-in terminal area. That is what has the potential for the most congestion,” said executive director Rick Cotton.
There’s also the option of flying domestically out of LaGuardia, or internationally out of Newark Liberty International, which is about 30 miles from midtown Manhattan.