Federal Circle Station
Terminal 8 was originally named Terminals 8/9 and serviced two original terminals from the 1960s. Terminal 9 was the original United Airlines Terminal (with Delta as a tenant in a smaller concourse) and opened in 1959 and was relatively subdued, although it contained some of the airports first Jet bridges (designed to connect to both the front and back of the plane). In 1960 American Airlines opened it’s iconic terminal with a now demolished stained glass façade. These terminals were eventually both used by American Airlines (terminal 8 for International Flights, Terminal 9 for domestic flights) when the AirTrain opened in 2003 and had an enclosed connection outside of security between the four figure boarding concourses between the two terminals.
After the AirTrain opened American Airlines immediately began a multiphase replacement project of the original Terminal 8 and Terminal 9 into one modern terminal. This project opened in phases between 2005 and 2007. It presently contains JFK’s only midfield satellite concourse, where all passengers must go into an underground tunnel, under the airport tarmac to reach the main domestic gates.
The AirTrain station for the modern terminal is elevated and located alongside the Red Parking Garage. To reach the terminal escalators lead down from near the center of the platform and elevators beyond the Terminal 1 end of the platform to an intermediate level just below the AirTrain platform. From here a bridge with moving walkways leads between the departures and arrivals roadway to an intermediate level in the terminal where passengers can go up to the Departures level by escalators and elevators or down to the arrivals level via escalators and elevators.
1-9: November 24, 2023;
