You might also like:
JetBlue is looking to expand its presence in its home town of New York. The carrier announced today that is has plans to build itself a new terminal and possible take over another at New York’s JFK Airport.
The plans it’s developing are for a new terminal located where the former Terminal 6 once stood, which is now a vacant piece of blacktop. Not far from its current base at Terminal 5, the new JetBlue terminal is expected to open in 2020. At this point, JetBlue is looking for a partner to co-invest in the project and it’s soliciting development concepts from designers.
In addition to building its own new terminal, Steve Priest, JetBlue’s CFO, suggested to Crain’s that it could also expand to have a presence JFK’s Terminal 7, which is currently occupied by British Airways. However, at this point, that’s still far off, as the lease for T7 expires in 2022 and would depend on negotiations with British Airways and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. If it all works out, JetBlue could take up space in T7 around 2025.
“New York is our number one focus and it’s very important for us to think about our long-term plans and investment here,” Priest said. ” We have the exclusive right to develop Terminal 6 and for us it’s prime real estate.”
Ultimately, the two new terminals could give JetBlue an additional presence at JFK totaling nearly 800,000 square feet. The combined terminals would nearly equal the size of its current 29-gate space in Terminal 5.
The announcement today from Priest and JetBlue is curious, especially considering the rumors that the New York-based carrier has been eyeing transatlantic flights. At this point though, the plans are still in the developing stages and nothing will likely come of this until at least 2020. Nonetheless, it’ll be interesting to see just how much JetBlue plans to expand its presence at JFK.
Source: thepointsguy.com