JetBlue Airways will be able to serve more passengers and provide more flights at Kennedy Airport after the completion of its new 26-gate terminal set to open next month, the airline's chief executive Dave Barger said yesterday.
Mayor Michael Bloomberg joined Barger in cutting the ribbon for the $875 million passenger terminal before hundreds of onlookers, many of them JetBlue employees.
"We have set a goal of reaching 50 million visitors annually by 2012," Bloomberg said. "Private investments in state-of-the-art terminals like this one will help us meet that goal, and create thousands of new jobs for New Yorkers in all five boroughs."
JetBlue, launched about eight years ago, is the largest airline at Kennedy, handling nearly a third of the airport's passenger traffic, city officials said. The airline employs 5,400 people in New York City.
The 635,000-square-foot terminal has 22 food concessions and 35 specialty retail stores as well as two ticketing areas.
Airline officials boast the terminal will be the largest single security checkpoint in the United States, accommodating 20 screening lanes, an automated baggage system and electronic displays directing customers to departure gates.
The terminal has doubled the airline's operating capacity at Kennedy. It can support 250 daily flights and 20 million passengers a year, airline officials said.
"We will now be able to offer our customers amenities, comfort and an experience befitting a top-rated customer service company," Barger said.
While many airlines have felt a financial crunch since the 2001 terror attacks, JetBlue in large part has managed to expand and increase services.
City officials said the new terminal will help accommodate an expected increase in travelers to New York City.
Last year, New York reached a record 46 million visitors.
