John F. Kennedy International Airport[a] (IATA: JFK, ICAO: KJFK, FAA LID: JFK) is a major international airport serving New York City and its metropolitan area, in the United States. The airport is located in Queens, New York City. It is the busiest of the seven airports in the New York airport system, the sixth-busiest airport in the United States, and the busiest international commercial airport in North America. The airport, which covers 5,200 acres (2,104 ha), is the largest in the New York metropolitan area.
Over 90 airlines operate from the airport, with nonstop or direct flights to destinations on all six inhabited continents.
JFK is located in the Jamaica neighborhood of Queens, 16 miles (26 km) southeast of Midtown Manhattan. The airport features five passenger terminals and four runways. It is primarily accessible via car, bus, shuttle, or other vehicle transit via the JFK Expressway or Interstate 678 (Van Wyck Expressway), or via train. JFK is a hub for American Airlines and Delta Air Lines as well as the primary operating base for JetBlue.
JFK is also a former hub for Braniff, Eastern, Flying Tigers, National, Northeast, Northwest, Pan Am, Seaboard World, Tower Air, and TWA.
The facility opened in 1948 as New York International Airport and was commonly known as Idlewild Airport.
Following the assassination of John F. Kennedy in 1963, the airport was renamed John F. Kennedy International Airport as a tribute to the 35th President of the United States.