AirTrain JFK opened exactly 100 years to the day after the Wright Brothers first flight on December 17, 2003. It is New York City’s most modern and only fully automated rapid transit system that exclusively services travelers going to or within JFK Airport. Passengers wanting to leave airport property at Howard Beach and all passengers at the off-airport Jamaica Stations must pay a very hefty $8.50 (as of March 2024) AirTrain access fee. Travel wholly within the Airport or to connect to the Q3, Q10, Q10 Limited, and B15 New York City Bus Routes (which used to service all airline terminals before the AirTrain opened) is free, although since 2024 the Q10 and B15 no longer fully enter the Airport terminating at the Lefferts Blvd AirTrain Station in the Long Term Parking Lot. Multi-ride tickets are also sold with a $25 10 ride AirTrain only MetroCard and $40 Unlimited ride AirTrain only MetroCard, are valid for travel with 30 consecutive days and geared for Airline and Airport Employees. The 10 ride MetroCard does provide a group discount for more than one passenger riding together (it can be used by up to 4 people at once, and is a better deal for just a couple making a round-trip on AirTrain to and from the Airport).
The high fares are partially because the system was built entirely using FAA Passenger Facility Charge (PFC) on airline tickets – a $4.50 fee on all airline tickets at New York City’s airports – and other airport related revenue. This means travel for non-airport uses must be strongly discouraged – and is therefore extremely expensive, since the AirTrain fee must be paid twice for passengers using it to go between Jamaica and Howard Beach. This is why it has to be a physically separate system only for Airport passengers. It would violate FTA rules for PFC chargers if it was using to use by regular transit riders wanting to get between Jamaica and the Rockaways for example (although Google Transit will show this as a suggested way to make this trip). The Airline Industry Trade Group, Airlines for America, even sued to stop the AirTrain’s construction saying it was an improper use of PFC charges. These lawsuits were led by American Airlines who wanted theses fees to be used to built it a new airline terminal (its facilities in the 1990s dated to 1959 and 1960) instead.
The system is an automated light metro system using Innovia Metro ART 200 cars with platform screen doors at every station and all stations climate controlled. The line is privately operated under contract by Alstom (the direct successor due to a corporate buy-out and merger with Bombardier in 2021) that built the system. Trains operate via a third rail for electricity with a central aluminum slab between the rails propelling trains with linear induction motors instead of electric traction on board the trains. This technology is a more modern version and direct successor to the Vancouver SkyTrain system.
The AirTrain operates entirely on airport property except for the approximately 3.1 mile long section on the Jamaica Line that operates almost entirely on a viaduct above the center of the Van Wyck Expressway where it feels like your flying often faster than traffic (the top speed of the AirTrain here is 55mph). The rest of the AirTrain system runs entirely on elevated viaducts except for a small section of tunnel (and at grade sections at each end near the tunnel) where the line has to travel under airport taxiways to enter the Central Terminal Area where all airline terminals are.
The AirTrain as designed operates with 3 different “trains” (as designed these each ran every 5 minutes) with stations able to handle up to four cars:
Jamaica Train – round-trip to and from Jamaica via the outer track of the Central Terminal Area running clockwise (using two car trains)
Howard Beach Train – round-trip to and from Howard Beach via the outer track of the Central Terminal Area running clockwise (using two car trains)
Airline Terminals Train – continous service on the inner track of the Central Terminal Area running counterclockwise (running a single car train)
The AirTrain operated this way with very frequency service as designed for only about the first 6 to 7 years of its existance. Starting around 2011, frequency started being cut with trains starting to every 7 to 12 minutes during rush hours, 10-15 minutes during the middle of the day, 15-20 minutes overnight, and every 16 minutes on weekends. These service cuts are inexcusable, and a sign of the system being poorly managed and perhaps not having enough cars as the system ages and more cars need to be in the maintenance shop. Automated trains should be an extremely frequent transit operation since no train operators need to be paid. The biggest benefit of an automated train system with driverless trains is that incrementally running additional service is generally much cheaper than adding service on a conventional rail (or bus line) since generally the biggest direct operational cost is paying for the driver.
Starting in 2023, the construction of Terminal 1 has made service on AirTrain even worse (through 2025) with the Central Terminal Area loop being cut into two sections because of construction. This has resulted in a very complicated service pattern with trains having to run in both directions on the same track (using both tracks) at Terminal 7, and Terminal 5 stations (because there are no switches by the terminal 4 station):
Trains also only run every 10 minutes, or only are increased to every 5 minutes on the Jamaica train line when service to Howard Beach is reduced to a shuttle train from Federal Circle.