JetBlue celebrated a milestone in the expansion of their flagship T5 terminal at JFK airport Monday morning with the “Topping Out” of the structure. The event marked the placement of the final steel beam of the T5i building, which is adding new gates and international arrivals facilities for the airline. Among other efficiencies, the carrier expects that having their international arrivals at T5i will bring them the equivalent savings of having one additional plane in their fleet thanks to faster turn times at JFK.
As the event was celebrating the installation of the final beam on the building, much of the party focused on signing the beam (most people signed the banner, not the beam) which was then hoisted into place atop the building.
There was also a tour of the site where guests were able to see the layout of the facility and how the passengers will flow when it goes into operation. There will ultimately be nine positions available for international arrivals – 6 gates and 3 hard stands. The current schedule has a maximum of 7 arrivals at one time so the bus positions will be in use from the get-go (assuming the schedule holds) but not too often. And, generally speaking for passengers, the operation will simply merge in with the rest of the building, at least for now. The exit of the Customs area will leave passengers in the existing baggage claim area. There is some opportunity being put in for future growth which would allow for a dedicated entrance and exit at that end of the terminal, as well as alterations to the traffic flow on the departures level, but those would be future projects (perhaps T5i+ ???).
JetBlue CEO Dave Barger signs a banner on the final I-beam of T5i
This article was written by Seth Miller, NYCA Correspondent.
