Coming soon: renumbered gates at New York’s JFK Airport
“Is it Gate 22 in Terminal 1, Terminal 5 or Terminal 8?”
That’s the question Jessica Forse doesn’t want visitors to ask transfer at New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK). completed.
The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which regulates and oversees the airport, is expected to renumber all gates across the entire airport in the coming months, TPG said.
Speaking on the sidelines of a recent media tour of the new Terminal 1, Forse, the executive overseeing the JFK redevelopment program, said that “the agency is evaluating what needs to be done” regarding the gate numbering at JFK.
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The problem is that several terminals already share port numbers and the confusion will only multiply when New Terminal 1 and newly opened Terminal 6.
To avoid confusion, the agency conducted a study to determine the best way to renumber the gates at JFK.
Top choice? A three-digit numbering system will cover the entire airport complex.
This means that Terminal 1 will have gates from 101 to 124. Terminal 4 will have gates starting from 401, Terminal 5 will have gates starting from 501, etc. Guests will know exactly which station each allocated gate corresponds to. This will also prevent duplicate gate numbers at the same airport.
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For example, Terminal 5 and Terminal 8 now use a two-digit numbering system for their gates. Currently, both terminals share gates numbered 1 to 30, and some infrequent flyers may be confused which terminal their flight departs from.
In fact, gate numbers at JFK are even more duplicated these days, as you’ll see below.
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- Terminal 1: Gates 1 to 12
- Terminal 4: Gates A2 to A21, B20 to B51
- Terminal 5: Gates 1 to 30
- Terminal 7: Gates 1 to 10
- Terminal 8: Gates 1 to 47
The Port Authority has not announced a timeline for when the gates will be renumbered, but they shared that they are looking to “do something sooner rather than later” regarding the new numbering scheme.
Forse said the reason is that the company wants to avoid the experience of “ripping off the entire headband.”
It will be interesting to see what happens, but a renumbering at JFK wouldn’t be surprising. In fact, another major US airport, Los Angeles International Airport (LAX), uses three-digit numbers for gates at Tom Bradley International Terminal.
San Francisco International Airport (SFO) also renumbered its gates in 2020, giving each gate a letter and a number corresponding to each terminal.
While the gates at JFK may soon be renumbered, it appears there has been no change in how the terminals are numbered.
Once the redevelopment project is complete, JFK will have Terminal 1, Terminal 4, Terminal 5, Terminal 6 and Terminal 8.
While logic might dictate that the Port Authority should rebrand its terminals in due course, the agency is (at least not yet) ready to make such a move.
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