JFK International - One of the World's Busiest Airports
John F. Kennedy International Airport is the one of the busiest international airports in the world. Located in the Queens district of New York City, JFK International Airport handles more international passengers than any other airport in the United States. In 2010 over 46 million passengers went through the terminals of JFK.
The airport is a city in itself. About 35,000 people work at the airport. More than 90 airlines fly in and out of New York’s JFK airport. The busiest routes from JFK lead to London, Heathrow, Madrid and Paris, Charles de Gaulle.
The airport opened in 1948. Originally , it was called Idlewild Airport. It was renamed shortly President Kennedy was assassinated in 1963. At first the airport could handle planes with a weight of 300 tones. In the 1960s JFK underwent changes in order to take on the new generation of jumbo jets that followed.
Currently there are four runways on which planes take off and land. One of them is long enough for a space shuttle to land. Over 40 km of taxiways move aircraft from their holding positions to the runways.
JFK airport has eight terminals with a total of over 150 gates . The buildings are arranged around parking areas, hotels and even a power plant . All the terminals are connected with each other through a train system. This train system connects the airport with downtown New York. It takes passengers about 30 to 40 minutes to get to Central Manhattan, about 20 km from the airport.
New York’s biggest airport is also an important freight hub . Most of the cargo between Europe and the United States passes through JFK and almost a quarter of all international goods to and from the USA are handled by the airport.
JFK International Airport has also been the location of several accidents and tragedies. Among them a TWA flight exploded shortly after taking off from JFK. All 230 people were killed. In April 2011 an Airbus A-380 crashed into a smaller plane while still on the ground. Fortunately nobody was injured .
Related Topics
- Airports
- Kai Tak - Hong Kong's Legendary Airport
- Four Decades of the Boeing 747
- Airbus A-380 : The Largest Plane in the World
- New York
- Tourism
Words
- accident = event in which people are killed or injured
- arrange = put in a certain position
- assassinate = to murder an important person
- busy = here: with a lot of traffic; many passengers
- cargo = goods
- connect = link
- currently = right now
- downtown = the centre of a city
- fortunately = luckily
- freight hub = the central part of a system ; goods that move on to other cities have to pass through this location
- gate = place where you leave an airport building to get on a plane
- handle = deal with, to move passengers
- holding position = place where an airplane stands at an airport or shortly before take-off
- injure = hurt
- located = where something is
- location = place, spot
- originally = at first
- power plant = a building that produces power and electricity
- renamed = given a different name
- runway = hard surface on which planes can take off and land
- taxiway = hard surface on which planes get to the runway
- terminal = big building where people wait to get on a plane
- weight = how heavy something is