New Yorkers will have more flight choices and fewer delays as the longest runway at John F. Kennedy International Airport reopens this week after a four- month closure for a $348 million repaving and updating.
Carriers including JetBlue Airways Corp. and Delta Air Lines Inc. will restore normal schedules on runway 13R-31L on July 1, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey said today. Located on the airport’s bay side, the runway measures 14,572 feet (4.44 kilometers), making it the second-longest commercial landing strip in the U.S. after one in Denver.
The runway usually handles about a third of all departures at JFK, the fourth-most congested airport in the U.S., with more than a quarter of all flights running late last year. To ease delays during construction, takeoffs were held to 525 a day instead of rising to the usual peak of 650 during the summer travel season, port authority officials said.
“There are solutions to the delays and inefficiencies, and we are working on them,” said Anthony Coscia, chairman of the port authority. The runway reopening will help, he said.
Full story: NYC Flight Options Rise as Longest JFK Runway Reopens – BusinessWeek