Airport Experience® News -Customer Service Issue 2026

Elements like the wing-like root as well as its skylights, oculus, and canopies evoke the flying experience, while its central piazza features plentiful seating, angled balconies, and quiet spaces for passengers to relax, he explains. Terminal 6 will also be home to JFK’s first connected terminal experience, offering both airside and landside links to JetBlue’s Terminal 5. Building from the ground up also allowed sustainability “to be a core design principle from the beginning, not an element added later in the process,” says Thody. “We looked at everything from construction materials and energy consumption to water management and airside operations with the goal of reducing environmental impact while creating a resilient, future-ready facility,” with features like sustainably sourced building materials, rooftop solar generation, high efficiency lighting and baggage systems, water bottle refill stations, and systems for collecting and reusing water as well as stormwater reclamation, automated building controls and an all-electric, pooled ground-support fleet. The team is also pursuing sustainability certificates like LEED Gold and Envision, with SITES certification underway, adds Thody, noting that “these efforts reflect a holistic approach that considers environmental performance, operational efficiency, resilience, and responsible development across the entire project lifecycle.” From a technology standpoint, “we’ve focused on systems that are curated to our passengers’ preferences and can make travel faster, more intuitive, and less stressful from curb to gate,” says Thody, noting that the terminal will feature biometric-enabled screening systems as well as amenities like self-service baggage stations to smooth the check-in process. The terminal’s concession program offers a mix of local favorites and well loved national and global brands. Food and beverage concepts from SSP America , M&R Concessions and OnSite Retailers include New York mainstays like P.J. Clarke’s, Brooklyn Brewery, Alidoro, Fuku, Hanoi House, Brooklyn Blend and Di Fara Pizza, and Queens-founded For Five Coffee Roasters’ first airport location.

T6 Coming Onstream The airport will also soon open the doors on a new Terminal 6, a $4.2-billion facility developed on the site of the former Terminals 6 and 7 by JFK Millennium Partners (a private consortium consisting of Vantage Airport Group, American Triple I, RXR Realty, and JetBlue ). The 1.2 million square foot terminal will open its arrivals and departures hall and first five gates in late 2026 with an additional five scheduled to open in 2028 following the demolition of Terminal 7. For the team at JFK Millennium Partners, “Terminal 6 presented a unique opportunity because it was designed from the ground up and around the needs of today’s traveler, rather than the constraints of a legacy facility,” says CEO Steve Thody. Hoping to create “an experience that feels more personal and welcoming than what travelers typically expect from a major international hub,” the Millennium team focused on designing spaces that are both efficient with short walking distances and thoughtful, filled with curated art as well as local dining and retail concepts. The terminal is designed as a sequence of spaces where light, movement and a sense of openness set the tone, while architectural and visual cues create a more intuitive passenger journey. “Every design decision is aimed to reduce stress and help passengers navigate the terminal more naturally and comfortably,” says Thody.

Above: Concessions operators were challenged to create concepts through a distinctly New York lens, rather than relying on replicas of offerings found elsewhere around the world.

the terminal’s art program with works created by New York artists, the choice to include a majority of local or locally inspired dining and retail brands or even its programming (the terminal recently celebrated the opening of an Eataly market with a performance from the Metropolitan Opera), Cuevas hopes that passengers will feel they have experienced New York, even if they never leave the airport. “For us, it’s about creating an experience that feels authentically New York,” says Cuevas, “one that reflects the people, places, culture and energy that make New York unique, and that customers can experience right here at Terminal 5.”

Left: June marked the much-anticipated opening of Neir’s Tavern in JFK T8. The historic Queens institution joined a roster of 20 locally inspired concessions in the terminal.

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AX NEWS OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2026