Statistics on Passenger Traffic at New York's JFK Airport
John F. Kennedy International Airport handled 62.6 million passengers in 2025, and more than half of them were flying to or from another country. No other US airport moves as many international travellers. Yet JFK finished 2025 slightly below its 2024 record, and the first eight months of 2026 ran 5.6% behind.
Why this matters: JFK is where most transatlantic trips from New York begin and end, so its traffic shapes fares, crowding and the odds of a smooth connection for millions of travellers. This page uses the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey's own traffic reports, federal route and punctuality data, and airport rankings to show how busy JFK really is, who flies there, where passengers go, how often flights arrive on time and what the new terminals will change. For the wider picture, see our US airports statistics and US air traffic passenger numbers.
Key JFK Airport Passenger Traffic Statistics at a Glance
- JFK served 62.6 million passengers in 2025, 1.0% fewer than its 2024 record of 63.3 million.
Source: Port Authority of NY and NJ, full-year 2025 facility volumes, February 2026 - International travellers made up 55.1% of JFK passengers in 2025: 34.5 million, against 28.1 million domestic passengers.
Source: Port Authority of NY and NJ, 2025 Airport Traffic Report, 2026 - JFK handled 40.1 million passengers from January to August 2026, 5.6% fewer than in the same months of 2025.
Source: Port Authority of NY and NJ, Airport Traffic Dashboard dataset, September 2026 - International traffic fell 7.0% in January to August 2026, while domestic traffic fell 3.8%.
Source: Port Authority of NY and NJ, Airport Traffic Dashboard dataset, September 2026 - August 2025 was the busiest month in JFK history, with 6.2 million passengers, 3.7 million of them international.
Source: Port Authority of NY and NJ, 2025 Airport Traffic Report, 2026 - JFK accounted for 43.9% of the 142.7 million passengers at Port Authority airports in 2025, and 66.9% of their international passengers.
Source: Port Authority of NY and NJ, 2025 Airport Traffic Report, 2026 (AirAdvisor calculation) - Delta Air Lines carried 18.5 million JFK passengers in 2025, a 29.6% share, ahead of JetBlue with 14.5 million.
Source: Port Authority of NY and NJ, 2025 Airport Traffic Report, 2026 - Delta, JetBlue and American together carried 64.7% of JFK passengers in 2025.
Source: Port Authority of NY and NJ, 2025 Airport Traffic Report, 2026 - JFK was the busiest US gateway for international travel in 2025, with 34.0 million passengers on nonstop international flights, 13.1% of the US total.
Source: US DOT, International Report Passengers (T-100 data), 2026 (AirAdvisor calculation) - London Heathrow is JFK's busiest international link, with 3.14 million nonstop passengers in 2025.
Source: US DOT, International Report Passengers (T-100 data), 2026 - The FAA ranks JFK 6th in the US for passenger boardings, with 30.8 million enplanements in 2025.
Source: FAA, Preliminary CY2025 Enplanements at All Commercial Service Airports, July 2026 - JFK handled 464,281 aircraft movements in 2025, 19th in the world, but fell outside ACI's global top 20 for passengers.
Source: ACI World, final 2025 world airport rankings, July 2026 - 75.5% of domestic arrivals at JFK were on time in 2025, against 76.3% for US reporting carriers nationwide.
Source: BTS, Reporting Carrier On-Time Performance, 2025 (AirAdvisor calculation) - 76.1% of departing JFK passengers started or ended their trip in the New York area; 23.9% were connecting.
Source: Port Authority of NY and NJ, 2025 Airport Traffic Report (ACI ASQ survey), 2026 - Terminal 4 handled 26.3 million passengers in 2025, 41.9% of all JFK traffic.
Source: Port Authority of NY and NJ, 2025 Airport Traffic Report, 2026 (AirAdvisor calculation) - The first 14 gates of the $9.5 billion New Terminal One are now expected to open in 2027, not 2026.
Source: Port Authority of NY and NJ, JFK Terminal 1 project page, accessed September 2026
JFK Annual Passenger Traffic, 2015-2025
JFK grew steadily through the late 2010s, collapsed in 2020 and took until 2023 to get within 1% of its 2019 level. Watch the green segment: international passengers recovered more slowly than domestic ones, then pushed the airport to a new high in 2024.
Source: Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, 2025 Airport Traffic Report, table 2.2.1, April 2026. Domestic includes Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands.
The record year was 2024, with 63.3 million passengers, including a record 35.3 million international travellers. In 2025 JFK slipped 1.0% to 62.6 million, which the Port Authority still counts as its second-busiest year. That total sits just 57,992 passengers above 2019, so ten years of growth effectively paused at the pre-pandemic level: traffic is 10.1% higher than in 2015 but flat against 2019. The mix has shifted, though. International passengers rose from 52.9% of the total in 2015 to 55.1% in 2025, while domestic numbers have hovered around 28 million in every non-pandemic year since 2018.
JFK Passengers in 2026 So Far
The monthly pattern shows how seasonal JFK is: summer months carry about two million more passengers than February. The 2026 line matters more. It sits below 2025 in every month reported so far, and the gap was widest in May, July and August.
Source: Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, Airport Traffic Dashboard dataset (revenue passengers), data through August 2026, file updated 24 September 2026. Recent months may be revised.
From January to August 2026 JFK handled 40.1 million passengers, down 5.6% from 42.4 million a year earlier. International traffic fell harder, by 7.0% to 22.1 million, while domestic traffic dropped 3.8% to 18.0 million. May (-7.6%), July (-7.2%) and August (-7.3%) were the weakest months against 2025, and August 2026 came in at 5.79 million, well short of the 6.25 million record set in August 2025. The Port Authority attributed the first-half decline across its airports to "ongoing macroeconomic uncertainty and volatile oil prices impacting airfares", with international travel the weakest segment. The slowdown had started before 2026: JFK's international traffic was already down between 4.5% and 5.7% a year in each month from September to December 2025.
JFK vs Newark vs LaGuardia
New York is a three-airport city, and the Port Authority runs all three. JFK is the biggest by a wide margin, but the comparison is less about size than about what kind of traffic each airport handles.
Source: Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, 2025 Airport Traffic Report, table 2.2.1, April 2026; full-year 2025 facility volumes release, 6 February 2026.
JFK handled 62.6 million passengers in 2025, against 47.0 million at Newark and 32.8 million at LaGuardia. Together with Stewart, the four airports served 142.7 million passengers, and JFK carried 43.9% of them. The international split is starker. JFK handled 34.5 million international passengers, two-thirds of the regional total, while Newark handled 15.4 million (a record for that airport) and LaGuardia, which has no long-haul service, just 1.6 million, mostly to Canada. JFK is also the only one of the three still roughly level with 2019: Newark is 1.6% above its 2019 total and LaGuardia 5.5% above. In 2026 the three airports are moving in different directions: from January to August, Newark was up 0.3%, LaGuardia down 3.7% and JFK down 5.6%.
How the Port Authority counts passengers: airport totals add arrivals and departures, so one return trip from JFK to London adds two passengers at JFK. The FAA's enplanement figures count boardings only, which is why JFK's 30.8 million FAA enplanements in 2025 are roughly half of the Port Authority's 62.6 million. Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands count as domestic in the domestic and international split.
Where JFK Passengers Are Flying
The Port Authority splits JFK traffic into eight market groups. The chart shows how much of the airport depends on routes across the Atlantic compared with flights inside the United States.
Source: Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, 2025 Airport Traffic Report, table 2.3.1, April 2026. Transatlantic covers Europe, the Middle East and Africa, including India and Pakistan; Transpacific covers Pacific Rim countries including China, Japan and Australia.
Domestic US routes, excluding Puerto Rico, accounted for 42.3% of JFK passengers in 2025, and transatlantic routes for 30.8%, or 19.3 million people. The Caribbean and Bermuda added another 9.8%. Against 2019 the markets have moved unevenly. Latin America grew 42.7% to 3.9 million passengers, while the transpacific market is still 20.9% smaller, at 3.0 million against 3.8 million. Transatlantic traffic (-0.8%) and the Caribbean (-0.7%) are close to their 2019 levels.
Largest Airlines at JFK
Three US airlines dominate JFK, each based in its own terminal. Below them sits a long tail of foreign carriers that together carry millions of passengers.
Source: Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, 2025 Airport Traffic Report, table 2.4.1 (top 20 carriers), April 2026. Chart shows the top 10.
Delta Air Lines carried 18.5 million passengers at JFK in 2025, a 29.6% share, including 6.1 million on international flights. JetBlue followed with 14.5 million (23.2%) and American Airlines with 7.4 million (11.9%). Together the three carried 64.7% of all JFK passengers. British Airways was the largest foreign airline with 1.3 million passengers, and the top 20 carriers together accounted for 86.1% of traffic. The ranking held in 2026: in the Port Authority's dashboard data for January to August 2026, Delta had 30.2% of JFK passengers, JetBlue 23.4% and American 12.5%.
JFK's Busiest International Routes
Federal T-100 data counts every passenger on nonstop international flights, by airport pair. The ranking below lists the ten foreign airports with the most JFK passengers in 2025, with 2019 shown in grey for comparison.
Source: US Department of Transportation, International Report Passengers dataset (BTS T-100 segment data, all carriers), 2019 and 2025, updated 7 August 2026. Passengers in both directions combined.
London Heathrow is in a league of its own, with 3.14 million passengers in 2025, 1.6% more than in 2019 and 9.2% of all JFK's nonstop international traffic. Paris Charles de Gaulle is second with 1.74 million. The Dominican Republic has two airports in the top five, Santiago and Santo Domingo. Since 2019 the route map has changed noticeably: Rome grew 34.6% and Seoul Incheon 16.6%, while Mexico City fell 30.6%, Madrid 20.6%, Milan 19.5% and Amsterdam 19.2%. Tokyo Haneda, just outside the top ten with 694,000 passengers, has grown from 260,000 in 2019. For more on how JFK and London compare with the world's largest hubs, see our busiest airports statistics.
Delayed flying between JFK and Europe?Flights leaving the EU or UK are covered on any airline, and flights from JFK into the EU or UK are covered when the airline is based there. Arrive 3+ hours late and you could be owed up to 600 EUR under EU261 or 520 GBP under UK261.Check Your Flight
JFK's Rank Among US and World Airports
JFK ranks differently depending on what is counted. On total boardings it sits behind the big domestic hubs. On international travel no other US airport comes close.
Source: US Department of Transportation, International Report Passengers dataset (BTS T-100 segment data, all carriers), 2025, updated 7 August 2026.
JFK handled 34.0 million passengers on nonstop international flights in 2025, 44.5% more than second-placed Los Angeles (23.5 million) and 13.1% of the US total of 258.7 million. On all traffic, the FAA's preliminary 2025 enplanement ranking puts JFK 6th in the US with 30.8 million boardings, behind Atlanta, Dallas/Fort Worth, Chicago O'Hare, Denver and Los Angeles. Globally, JFK dropped out of ACI World's top 20 airports by passengers in 2025, having been in it in 2024: 20th-placed Kuala Lumpur handled 63.4 million passengers. JFK's 34.5 million international passengers were also just below the 35.0 million recorded by Tokyo Narita, 20th on ACI's international list. JFK did rank 19th in the world for aircraft movements, with 464,281 takeoffs and landings.
JFK On-Time Performance
Federal punctuality data covers domestic flights by the larger US airlines, which includes Delta, JetBlue, American and their regional partners at JFK. The chart compares how those arrivals fared at the three New York airports with the national result.
Source: Bureau of Transportation Statistics, Reporting Carrier On-Time Performance data, January 2025 to July 2026 (July 2026 file posted 21 September 2026). AirAdvisor calculation: on time means arriving less than 15 minutes late; cancelled and diverted flights are counted as not on time. International flights and foreign airlines are not included.
In 2025, 75.5% of domestic arrivals at JFK were on time, slightly below the national figure of 76.3% but ahead of LaGuardia (71.3%) and Newark (70.6%). At JFK, 22.1% of arrivals were 15 minutes or more late and 2.0% were cancelled. The first seven months of 2026 were worse: JFK's on-time rate fell to 72.7%, against 75.0% nationally, and 4.6% of its arrivals were cancelled. Newark, the weakest of the three in 2025, was the most punctual in 2026 at 76.3%. Of the delay minutes BTS attributed to late JFK arrivals in 2025, 30.8% were caused by the airline itself, 33.8% by a late-arriving earlier flight, 31.4% by the national aviation system (air traffic control, heavy traffic and non-extreme weather) and 3.8% by extreme weather. For how capacity limits shape delays at New York's airports and other busy hubs, see our airport congestion statistics.
JFK Terminals and the Redevelopment Programme
JFK is in the middle of a $19 billion rebuild that puts two new terminals on the sites of five old ones and expands two existing terminals. The table combines each terminal's 2025 traffic with its status as of September 2026.
| Terminal | 2025 passengers | Main airlines | Status (September 2026) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Terminal 1 | 6,076,598 (9.7%) | Foreign airlines | Being replaced by the $9.5 billion New Terminal One (23 gates), built on the sites of Terminal 1 and the former Terminals 2 and 3; first phase with 14 gates now expected in 2027 |
| Terminal 4 | 26,262,242 (41.9%) | Delta Air Lines | 36 gates; $1.5 billion expansion substantially completed in 2023 |
| Terminal 5 | 14,294,338 (22.8%) | JetBlue | 29 gates, opened in 2008; will connect to the new Terminal 6 |
| Terminal 6 (new) | No separate figure | JetBlue and partner airlines | $4.2 billion, 10 gates; the Port Authority lists the first five gates as opening in 2026 (the developer, JFK Millennium Partners, says six) and the developer expects completion by 2028; no Terminal 6 traffic appears in Port Authority data through August 2026 |
| Terminal 7 | 4,428,747 (7.1%) | Mix of domestic and foreign airlines | To be demolished for the second phase of Terminal 6 |
| Terminal 8 | 11,565,724 (18.5%) | American Airlines, British Airways | $400 million renovation and expansion completed in 2022 |
Source: Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, 2025 Airport Traffic Report, table 2.5.1 and JFK fact sheet, April 2026; JFK Terminal 1 and Terminal 6 project pages, accessed 25 September 2026; TAP Air Portugal, Terminal 6 announcement, 30 March 2026.
The timetable has slipped. The Port Authority's 2025 traffic report, published in April 2026, said the first 14 gates of New Terminal One were "set to open in 2026"; its project page now says the first phase is expected in 2027. When finished, the Port Authority says the redeveloped airport should be able to handle up to 100 million passengers a year by 2050, roughly 60% more than it handled in 2025. Getting there is not only about gates. In 2025, 15.9% of departing JFK passengers arrived by rail or subway, and AirTrain JFK carried a record 27 million riders.
Outlook
JFK is an international airport first, and 2026 shows the downside of that: when long-haul demand softens, JFK feels it more than Newark or LaGuardia. Through August the airport was 5.6% behind 2025, with international traffic down 7.0%, so matching 2025's 62.6 million would take 22.6 million passengers from September to December, 11.8% more than in the same months of 2025. The longer story is capacity. New Terminal One and Terminal 6 will have 33 gates between them, 31 of them sized for widebody aircraft, and they are central to the Port Authority's plan for an airport that can handle up to 100 million passengers a year by 2050. Terminal 7 is due to be demolished for the second phase of Terminal 6, so more airline moves are still ahead.
Flying between New York and Europe?If your flight departed from the EU or UK, or landed in the EU or UK on an airline based there, and arrived 3+ hours late, you could be owed up to 600 EUR under EU261 or 520 GBP under UK261.Check Your Flight
References and Sources
- Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, 2025 Airport Traffic Report, April 2026 (letter dated 10 April 2026)
- Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, Port Authority Reports Facility Volumes for December and Full-Year 2025, 6 February 2026
- Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, Port Authority Reports Facility Volumes for First Half of 2026, 31 July 2026
- Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, Airport Traffic Dashboard (ATD) dataset, data through August 2026, updated 24 September 2026
- Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, JFK Terminal 1: New Terminal One Construction and Updates, accessed 25 September 2026
- Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, JFK Terminal 6: New Terminal Construction and Updates, accessed 25 September 2026
- TAP Air Portugal, TAP Air Portugal Selects New JFK Terminal 6 for Future Operations, 30 March 2026
- US Department of Transportation, International Report Passengers (BTS T-100 segment data), updated 7 August 2026
- Bureau of Transportation Statistics, Reporting Carrier On-Time Performance (1987-present), January 2025 to July 2026 data, accessed 25 September 2026
- Federal Aviation Administration, Preliminary CY2025 Enplanements at All Commercial Service Airports (by Rank), 8 July 2026
- ACI World, World's Busiest Airports: Atlanta Holds, Asia Climbs (final 2025 rankings), 15 July 2026
- ACI World, Busiest airports in the world (international passenger rankings, 2025), accessed 25 September 2026
- ACI World, World's Busiest Airports Revealed in Final Global Rankings (2024 data), 8 July 2025
Methodology Note
Annual passenger totals, the domestic and international split, market groups, airline rankings, terminal totals and passenger survey results come from the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey's 2025 Airport Traffic Report, which reflects the agency's January 2025 revisions to historical data; figures are revenue passengers, counting arrivals and departures, with Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands treated as domestic. Monthly 2026 figures and the 2026 airline shares come from the Port Authority's Airport Traffic Dashboard dataset (updated 24 September 2026, data through August 2026), whose 2025 totals match the annual report exactly; the dashboard labels airlines by marketing carrier, and recent months may be revised. Route and gateway rankings use the US DOT International Report Passengers dataset, built from BTS T-100 segment data for all carriers on nonstop international flights; its JFK total (34.0 million) differs slightly from the Port Authority's 34.5 million international passengers because of different coverage. On-time figures are AirAdvisor calculations from BTS reporting-carrier flight records for domestic flights only, with cancelled and diverted flights counted as not on time; they can differ by a fraction of a point from rates built from BTS's monthly delay-cause summary. FAA enplanements count boardings only and are preliminary. Two sources conflict on New Terminal One: the April 2026 traffic report gave 2026 for the first 14 gates, while the Port Authority's current project page gives 2027; we use the newer date. We found no Port Authority traffic figure for the new Terminal 6, which does not appear separately in the dashboard data through August 2026. Percentages are calculated from unrounded figures and rounded to one decimal place. No forecast figures are shown in the charts.
Author:
Amy LancelotteJob/Position: Senior Writer & Content Strategist
Amy Lancelotte is a Senior Content Writer and editorial contributor at AirAdvisor with over seven years of experience producing research-based articles for international audiences. Her work focuses on travel, aviation, and air passenger rights, with an emphasis on factual accuracy, verified data, and clear, reader-first explanations.
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