Ground broken on Kennedy Airport's $4.2 billion Terminal 6

Gov. Kathy Hochul joined a bevy of other officials to break ground Thursday on a new $4.2 billion Terminal 6 at Kennedy Airport, which will boast touchless check-in technology, advanced security systems and 100,000 square feet of shopping and dining.

The 1.2-million-square-foot terminal, the last part of an $18 billion plan to revamp the Queens airport, will open its first gates in 2026, with work completed in 2028. The terminal will serve JetBlue, SWISS, Lufthansa, Brussels Airlines and Austrian Airlines.

"The last 14 months have been transformational in the history of JFK," Hochul said during the ceremony held at a Kennedy hanger. "This is a milestone."

Tourism in New York has returned to 85% of what it was before the pandemic, Hochul noted, and the groundbreaking marked another sign that the COVID-19 pandemic is slipping into the past.

The terminal will have the capacity for 10 gates that connect directly to JetBlue's Terminal 5. The new terminal is a public-private partnership between the Port Authority and JFK Millennium Partners, a consortium that includes RXR Realty of Uniondale, Vantage Airport Group, American Triple 1 Partners and JetBlue Airways.

Rick Cotton, the Port Authority executive director, said, "A new world-class JFK is on the way. … Governor, we will not disappoint you."

Rep. Gregory Meeks, a Democrat who represents much of the southeast Queens area around the airport, said the new terminal is a testament to New Yorkers' ability to dream big.

"If you can dream it, you can do it. If you conceive it, you can achieve it," Meeks said.

The project, officials said, is expected to create more than 4,000 jobs, including 1,800 union construction positions.

"It will put people to work. It will feed families," Meeks said.

By Craig Schneider

craig.schneider@newsday.com@Scraigo

Craig Schneider is a Long Island native and Stony Brook University alumnus. He joined Newsday as a general assignment reporter in January 2018 after 20 years at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.