Starting today, Monday, June 30, 2025, if you will be traveling to or from John F. Kennedy International Airport and plan to visit or leave New York, you are in luck: AirTrain is half price in New York for Summer 2025 through Monday, September 1, 2025 due to ongoing construction and renovation of the airport.
AirTrain is Half Price in New York Summer 2025
The fare for AirTrain was reduced from $8.50 per ride to $4.25 per ride through the Labor Day holiday weekend to encourage the use of public transportation in order to reduce traffic congestion at the frontages of terminals at John F. Kennedy International Airport, as a new record of 18.3 million travelers are expected to use the airport in the summer of 2025 while construction of new roads and terminals at the airport will be at its peak.
“The half-price AirTrain JFK fare of $4.25 applies at both the Jamaica and Howard Beach stations, the two off-airport stations that require payment via OMNY or MetroCard”, according to this official press release from The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which is the authority in charge of operations at the airport. “Jamaica is just 20 minutes from Grand Central Madison, Penn Station, or Atlantic Terminal via Long Island Rail Road, and easily accessible from Long Island. Easy subway connections are also available at the Sutphin Blvd-Archer Av-JFK Airport and Howard Beach subway stations via the A/E/J/Z lines.”
For travelers who must take a motor vehicle to the airport, The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey operates an area for dropping off passengers and picking up passengers at the on-airport Lefferts Boulevard station, which is a free direct AirTrain ride of eight minutes to the airport terminals to help passengers avoid heavy congestion on terminal frontages. Note that parking at the airport will be extremely limited, and passengers planning to park motor vehicles should book parking reservations in advance at JFKAirport.com in order to guarantee a spot. Travelers who must drive to the airport should plan to arrive three hours prior to the departure of their flights. Access by car to Terminal 7 will be especially challenging this summer while the existing roadway to the terminal is demolished so that steel for a new permanent roadway to Terminal 6 can be erected. Passengers traveling to Terminal 7 are highly encouraged to use AirTrain.
The fare for AirTrain was reduced by 50 percent last year for similar reasons — but more passengers are expected to use the airport in 2025 than in 2024. From now through Labor Day, the airport will face the formidable dual challenge of record volumes of air travelers combined with the peak of construction activities for the $19 billion redevelopment of the airport, the single largest construction program undertaken to date at an airport that is operated by The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. Both the summers of 2023 and 2024 saw record volumes at the airport. The projected increase for summer of 2025 of 300,000 passengers — combined with last year’s increase of 700,000 — means that the summer passenger volume of the airport will increase by one million travelers in the two years that airport construction has been at its busiest.
The $19 billion redevelopment of the airport will transform it into one of the best global gateways in the world with:
- Two new international terminals.
- Two expanded and modernized terminals.
- Anew ground transportation center.
- An entirely new airport roadway network that when complete will create a more efficient way to navigate the airport than the current roadway network that meanders confusingly across the terminal area. A new roadway network will be designed to bring travelers to and from their terminals with six miles of new roads, 30 percent fewer driver decision points, and signficantly fewer signaled intersections.
AirTrain normally costs $8.50 per one-way trip. The fare increased from $7.75 to $8.00 back in January of 2022. The fare increased again from $8.00 to $8.25 on Sunday, March 5, 2023. The fare increased yet again to $8.50 on Sunday, March 3, 2024.
To mitigate the impact of construction and heavy passenger volume, The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey is deploying a multi-pronged strategy, which includes — as copied verbatim from its aforementioned official press release — the following items:
Urging passengers to use public transit to JFK:
- Use AirTrain JFK from the Jamaica or Howard Beach stations to avoid traffic; Jamaica is just 20 minutes from Grand Central Madison, Penn Station, or Atlantic Terminal via Long Island Rail Road. Easy subway connections are also available via the A/E/J/Z lines;
- Fare reduction from $8.50 to $4.25 beginning June 30 to Sept. 1 to encourage use of public transit;
For passengers who must use ride apps or car services, passenger pickup has been relocated away from the following terminal frontages:
Terminal 4
- From 12 p.m. to 2 a.m. the for-hire ride app and car service pickup at Terminal 4 is now located at the Lot 66 Ride App & Car Services Pickup;
- Free shuttle buses to the pickup lot depart from the Terminal 4 arrivals level every 1-2 minutes;
- ADA accessible ride apps and taxi service remain at the frontage.
Terminals 5 and 7
- At all times, for-hire ride app and car service pickups at terminals 5 and 7 is now located at a designated lot at AirTrain JFK’s Howard Beach station;
- Passengers can reach the Howard Beach Ride App and Car Services pickup lot by taking the free on-airport AirTrain to the Howard Beach station;
- ADA accessible ride apps and taxi service remain at the frontage.
For passengers being dropped off or waiting for pickups from friends or family, use the free wait lot at AirTrain JFK’s Lefferts Blvd station:
- To avoid traffic at the terminal frontages, passengers should use the free wait lot at the AirTrain JFK Lefferts Blvd station, where they can be dropped off or picked up by friends or family via personal vehicles;
- AirTrain JFK is free between the Lefferts Blvd station and airport terminals, with an 8-minute ride to the terminals;
- Save time and stay clear of congestion at the terminals.
For motorists who plan to drive and park at JFK, pre-book a parking space:
- Given record travel volumes and construction entering a peak phase, congestion is expected, and passengers getting picked up or dropped off directly at terminals should allow for additional time by arriving to the airport at least 3 hours early.
- Parking is extremely limited. To save significantly on cost and to guarantee a spot, travelers should pre-book their parking space at JFKAirport.com.
Proactive traffic management:
- JFK’s airport operations center is staffed 24/7 to support airport-wide coordination and active traffic management, anticipating peak activity and implementing traffic mitigations in response to increased wait or queues;
- Real-time coordination 24/7 for flight activity, traffic delays, public messaging, and mapping platform updates;
- Facilitate adjustments in roadway construction activity to meet operational needs of airport community.
Increased staffing to keep traffic and passengers moving to their destinations:
- Frontline staff will be increased, including Port Authority police officers and Port Authority operations staff, additional traffic managers at terminal frontages, tow trucks pre-positioned, additional taxi dispatchers and parking attendants, and customer service representatives at all terminals and across the AirTrain JFK system.
Transforming JFK Into a World-Class Global Gateway
In January 2017, the JFK Vision Plan was announced to transform JFK into the world-class airport that New Yorkers deserve. The vision plan provides a strategic framework for the Port Authority and its partners to completely redevelop, modify and expand existing facilities and infrastructure. The $9.5 billion development of a state-of-the-art new Terminal One that will anchor the airport’s south side broke ground in September 2022. A new $4.2 billion Terminal 6, which will connect seamlessly with Terminal 5 to create an anchor terminal on the airport’s north side, broke ground in February 2023. The $1.5 billion expansion of Terminal 4, led by Delta Air Lines and JFK International Air Terminal (JFKIAT), is substantially complete. Additionally, the $400 million expansion of Terminal 8, led by American Airlines, which operates the terminal, was completed in November 2022.
All of the privately financed terminal projects combined with the Port Authority’s roadway, parking and infrastructure projects represent a $19 billion transformation of JFK and an extraordinary series of public-private partnerships. The capital investment of $3.9 billion by The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey is leveraging private investment at a rate of nearly four to one when taking into account the full private investment of more than $15 billion that has been committed to the four projects comprising the full redevelopment of the airport.
Final Boarding Call
John F. Kennedy International Airport seems to have been under continuous construction for decades — but seeing what The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey did with the revitalization of Fiorello LaGuardia Airport, perhaps hope actually abounds that this airport will finally be considered world class.
Remember that after the discount for the summer ends, you can still take advantage of how to purchase ten trips on AirTrain in New York for only $26.50 with this step-by-step guide that is complete with photographs.
Having that discount would have been nice when I had to navigate through the renovations at the airport while I was there three years ago to be at the TWA Hotel for the first time…
All photographs ©2022 by Brian Cohen.
