JFK’s New Terminal One Delay Keeps Old Terminal 1 Open

New Terminal One at New York’s JFK Airport is now due to take passengers in the first quarter of 2027. The private group building the $9.5 billion hall says it is still finishing construction and wants more time to test systems with airlines and shops. That wait leaves the 1998 Terminal 1 in service and holds the wrecking work that would clear nine more gates.

The Opening Date Moved to Early 2027

On September 15, 2026, New Terminal One said it now expects to welcome travelers in the first quarter of 2027. A year earlier the same project still talked about a summer 2026 debut, and the lease with the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey had pegged the first phase to June 2026.

The slip did not arrive in one jump. In December 2025 the developer told the Port Authority the planned opening had moved to October 2026. By spring the date had moved again.

Uzoamaka N. Okoye, chief of staff of New Terminal One, has described a live window that still straddles two years. She said a calendar day will come jointly with the Port Authority.

We are targeting opening between the end of the year and first quarter 2027, and a date will be announced in partnership with the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.

Uzoamaka N. Okoye, chief of staff, New Terminal One

She said operations start with Phase A: the new arrivals and departure halls and the east pier’s first 14 gates. A New Terminal One spokesperson, asked about the later public date, said the group was finalizing construction and lining up airline and concession partners.

We want to ensure that all systems and processes are well-tested and prepared to deliver on our commitment to set a new standard in customer experience, from day one.

Spokesperson, New Terminal One

THE DATE SLIPS ON PHASE A

1. June 10, 2022: The Port Authority issues notice to proceed on the New Terminal One lease, with Phase A planned to open in June 2026.
2. December 2025: New Terminal One tells the Port Authority the opening has moved to October 2026.
3. May 15, 2026: Moody’s Ratings revises the project outlook to negative and treats the first phase as no earlier than November 2026.
4. July 6, 2026: Fitch Ratings sets a completion window between December 6, 2026, and March 31, 2027.
5. September 15, 2026: New Terminal One says passengers should expect the first quarter of 2027.

Fitch’s range is a construction-finish window, not a boarding date. The operator’s own passenger target is the first quarter of 2027, which is why winter schedules and the old terminal’s stay now run on that later clock.

Fitch Put $5.9 Billion on Negative Watch

The hall is a private build. New Terminal One is JFK NTO LLC, a group led by Ferrovial, JLC Infrastructure, Ullico, and Carlyle, and Ferrovial has called the deal the largest private investment in a U.S. terminal. Ferrovial’s 2026 investor materials list about $2.3 billion of committed equity, with Ferrovial’s share at $1.14 billion. The finished complex is meant to sit inside the Port Authority’s $19 billion JFK rebuild.

Debt is already outstanding. On July 6, 2026, Fitch placed a Rating Watch Negative on $5.9 billion of bonds sold in 2023, 2024, and 2025, plus a $250 million liquidity facility and a $50 million security deposit facility. Fitch held the BBB-minus grade and moved the expected Phase A finish from June 1, 2026, to a span running from December 6, 2026, to March 31, 2027. It also flagged late-stage cost overruns that the project is covering with contingencies, ramp-up reserves, and those liquidity lines.

Fitch tied the extra months to staffing limits and to trouble lining up mechanical, electrical, and plumbing work. Until passengers show up, the bonds collect interest against a building that is not yet charging airlines for a live hall.

HOW RATING FIRMS MARKED THE SLIP

Kroll has also pointed to a June 1, 2027, longstop in the financing. That is a lender deadline, not a boarding promise, and it sits only a few months after the quarter New Terminal One is now selling to the public.

The 1998 Building Has to Keep Working

Phase A is rising on the old Terminal 2 and Terminal 3 sites. The present Terminal 1, opened in 1998 as a joint home for Air France, Lufthansa, Korean Air, and Japan Airlines, stays open until the new pier can take those banks. Only after the first phase is live is the old hall slated to come down.

That is already a long extra season for a building that was never meant to carry JFK’s south side through the late 2020s. Arrival boards on September 20, 2026, still showed Air France from Paris, Lufthansa from Munich and Frankfurt, Korean Air from Seoul, Turkish Airlines from Istanbul, EVA Air from Taipei, SAS from Oslo and Copenhagen, SWISS from Geneva and Zurich, plus ITA Airways, Saudia, LOT, TAP, Austrian, Royal Air Maroc, China Eastern, Asiana, Cayman Airways, Air Serbia, and Viva Aerobus.

A Port Authority official statement on the lease says the current Terminal 1 deal ran through December 2025 and then rolls month to month through May 28, 2028, unless either side ends it on 60 days’ notice. The legal home for those carriers is safe. The passenger product is the 1998 hall, with its old clubs, old bag belts, and a roadway already sharing space with a job site.

Carriers that planned to leave Terminal 8 for the new building give up a same-campus link to American Airlines. That transfer will still run through the AirTrain or a landside hop once the new hall opens, and the late date does not shorten it. Qatar Airways announced in August 2025 that it would move over with its first U.S. lounge inside the new terminal, aiming at 2026. That year is gone as a passenger target.

Air France’s New Lounge Is Waiting Too

The same September 15 cycle that locked in the 2027 boarding date also brought Air France’s club plans. The airline will move all of its JFK flights into New Terminal One next year and open a two-level lounge spanning more than 29,000 square feet, the largest in its network outside France, with seats for more than 400 guests. That is roughly triple its current Terminal 1 club.

Air France is the project’s largest airline. In summer it flies up to six daily trips to JFK and two to Newark, part of as many as 11 daily Paris-Charles de Gaulle services to the New York area, and four of the JFK trips use Boeing 777-300ER jets with the new La Première cabin. Delta Air Lines, its joint-venture partner, adds three JFK-Paris flights. La Première and Business customers, Flying Blue Elite Plus members, and eligible KLM and SkyTeam passengers are slated to use the new club, with a separate room for Flying Blue Ultimate members.

Jennifer Aument, chief executive of New Terminal One, tied the club to the group’s pitch for the building.

Air France’s investment in our terminal’s biggest lounge represents a strong vote of confidence in the seamless and modern travel experience we are building.

Jennifer Aument, CEO, New Terminal One

Nicolas Henin, Air France-KLM’s senior vice president for North America, said New York is one of the airline’s most important markets and that 2026 marks 80 years of Air France service there. The club cannot open before the hall does, so the 2027 date is now the lounge date as well.

New Terminal One has said the building will hold six lounges, four run by airlines and two by Plaza Premium Group. Korean Air has also said it will put a club in the new hall. Public posts about the project in mid-September followed that lounge news far more closely than the calendar change, which is how a commissioning delay gets read as a missing Champagne bar.

Nine Gates Sit Behind the Old Terminal

The first passenger slice is not the whole terminal. Port Authority project materials describe 2.6 million square feet and 23 gates at full build in 2030, with more than 300,000 square feet for shops, restaurants, and clubs, and they call it the largest terminal at JFK. Phase A is smaller on purpose, because the old Terminal 1 is still standing on the rest of the plot.

PHASE A VERSUS THE FINISHED HALL

Those nine gates are not a finishing flourish. They are the reason the old building has to come down, and the wrecking date only starts once Phase A is handling airplanes. Every month the first 14 gates stay dark is a month the second concourse cannot be built.

The June 10, 2022, groundbreaking promised more than 10,000 jobs, including more than 6,000 construction posts, and a 2026 public opening. The steel topped off in March 2024. The jobs are real. The 2026 boarding date is not.

Terminal 6 Is Racing a Similar Clock

Across the airfield, JFK Millennium Partners is building Terminal 6 as a 10-gate hall meant to connect to JetBlue’s Terminal 5. S&P Global Ratings has said Phase 1 missed a contractual finish of December 4, 2025, and that the new target is near the fourth quarter of 2026, with the rest of the building aimed at 2028. Design-build talks have included a plan to knock down Terminal 7 once the first T6 gates can take those flights.

If that fourth-quarter 2026 target holds, some north-side carriers could move before New Terminal One takes a single bag. Star Alliance names already attached to Terminal 6 plans include Lufthansa and SWISS, both of which still used Terminal 1 on September 20, 2026. A late south-side opening does not freeze every T1 airline in place. It does freeze the ones whose signed home is New Terminal One, Air France first among them.

JFK will, for a stretch, run a 1998 international hall next to a half-open new one, while a second new terminal tries to start on the other side of the airport. Roadways, AirTrain stops, and bag connections have to serve that mix, which is messier than a clean cutover in June 2026 would have been.

What Opens in the First Phase

Travelers looking at 2027 tickets should plan on the old Terminal 1 until the operator and the Port Authority name a day. When Phase A does open, the first useful map is narrow.

WHAT PHASE A IS SUPPOSED TO TURN ON

• The halls: New arrivals and departures spaces on the east side of the plot, not a rebuilt version of the 1998 building.
• The gates: 13 permanent wide-body stands plus one temporary gate on the east pier.
• The airlines: International carriers that have signed for the new hall, with Air France as the largest, joined by names already on the project’s list such as Korean Air, EVA Air, Turkish Airlines, Qatar Airways, and Saudia.
• The clubs: Air France’s two-level lounge and the first of the other airline and Plaza Premium rooms, only as those fit-outs clear.
• The old hall: Still standing at opening, then slated for demolition so the nine-gate add can start.

No public calendar day sits inside that first quarter of 2027. Okoye said the date will be announced with the Port Authority, and the current Terminal 1 lease can roll month to month through May 28, 2028. The new hall can move again without leaving those airlines without a legal building. It cannot move again without leaving them in 1998 for another season.