What will $65 million in improvements look like in Terminal 7 at JFK Airport in New York City? British Airways is set to invest heavily in its operations there and wants the new terminal to look and feel something more like the new First Wing at Heathrow Terminal 5 which just opened for service. The company released a video this morning with some renderings of what the new space will look like.
From the video:
Why New York? Its out most popular long-haul route. We operate up to 20 flights a day between the two cities serving more than 100,000 customers a month. It’s a city that doesn’t sit still and neither can we.
I’m not sure what the 20 are (I count 12 o/w flights in June including LHR/LGW/LCY) but the point remains that BA runs a ton of capacity in and out of New York City and the terminal desperately needs an upgrade. Given these goals the company has set out a two year timeline to refresh nearly the entire building.
The land-side area will be fully refreshed with new check-in areas throughout.
Lounges will be updated to look similar to the Boston lounge that just opened.
The TSA security checkpoint will be “enhanced” and new “immersive” retail options will be installed.9
New seats and power sockets will be installed at the boarding gate areas to “delight” passengers.
And the new terminal will offer an authentic culinary experience to satisfy a variety of tastes.
Construction in the airport “starts soon” on all these projects with a goal to complete in the 2019 timeframe.
Overall I’m mostly excited for the renovations. The existing terminal is dark and dreary. New lights and new restaurants will help on that front, though much of that will depend on what is actually in place when the construction finishes. If it is a bunch of off-brand restaurants all managed from a central kitchen with prices increased 20% I’m not so sure it will make passengers any happier. And if there really are as few seats as are shown in the rendering above there will be all sorts of problems.
Still, the overall investment should bring benefits to passengers in every cabin which is a nice development to see.
Never miss another post: Sign up for email alerts and get only the content you want direct to your inbox.
@e_russell Is that going to be enough to fix the place? It’s an embarrassment.
Part of that sounds like it was written on Madison Avenue rather than in London 🙁
“Immersive” retail operations?
What’s that? Bobbing for apples you buy?
I hope the customers don’t try to use the new power ports before fully drying themselves off from their immersion.
Yeah, that’s pretty awful. But it is what it is. Mostly just have to wait and see if it is another full OTG conversion with the iPad ordering and no service staff or something else.
The lounges definitely need some help at JFK
The problem(s) with T7 are the low ceilings and narrow walkways – from the drawings it seems that neither will be solved. So it’s really $65mm to apply lipstick on a pig.
(speaking as someone who traverses T7 at least 3-4 times a year)
It won’t fix the low ceilings, though better lighting in those areas could help a bit.
The gate areas are desperate for a refresh and the concessions aren’t great, though I’m skeptical that this will fix the latter in a way that benefits me as a passenger.
The 20 flights a day probably include Open Sky flights to Paris and possibly Iberia flights as well I’m guessing.
Not impressed at all. Maybe I am overly picky but I don’t see how this is going to significantly improve the experience aside from the lounges.
Open and airy terminals are the way to go – T7 cannot be saved in this regard.
Not sure if I missed it but any mention of improved premium security checkpoint? That line gets pretty long sometimes
That terminal needs all the help it can get.
Hi Seth – the 20 flights per day refers to BA, Open Skies, Iberia and other customer airlines at T7 such as ANA, Icelandair, Qantas, Ukraine International, Interjet and more.
That cannot be correct, based both on the number of total flights from the terminal and the part where the script is “between the two cities.”
The 20 flights per day refers to flights between London and New York as markets, not airports, so it includes BA flights to JFK and Newark.
I did that version of the math, too. Still not 20 flights (only 1 or 2 EWR, 1 LGW-JFK and 1 LCY-JFK). Even adding the AA flights in doesn’t get it right.
Wh’ev…I’m over it now.