Overview

The AirTrain JFK, coloquially called "the AirTrain" by locals, is a small scale people mover system located at John F. Kennedy International Airport in the Borough of Queens in New York. It is a completely automated system under operation by Alstom, who took over after Bombardier sold their transit division to Alstom. The system is based off the Innovia Metro platform, and as a result uses the Innovia Metro ART 200 series traincars. These cars are also used on a bunch of other systems, most notably on the Vancouver SkyTrain in British Columbia, Canada.

Opened on December 17th, 2003, the AirTrain JFK serves thousands upon thousand of people per day. It usually serves either tourists coming from elsewhere taking the AirTrain to the New York City Subway at either Howard Beach or Jamaica, or passengers at the airport simply connecting between terminals. It also serves as a convenient way to get to the TWA Hotel. It also serves those who live on Long Island, who take the AirTrain to Jamaica for the purpose of transferring to the Long Island Rail Road.

Lines

The AirTrain JFK has three lines which all interconnect with each other in some fashion. Those three lines are the All Terminals Line, Jamaica Line, and the Howard Beach Line. The purpose of all three lines are written on a list below. For better visualization of what I am trying to imply in the list, please refer to the map in the basic info section.

• All Terminals Line
• Serves only the terminals at JFK Airport; runs in a continuous loop.
• Jamaica Line
• Serves the airport terminals, Federal Circle & Jamaica
• Howard Beach Line
• Serves the airport terminals, Federal Circle, Lefferts Blvd & Jamaica

All of these lines are pretty busy, especially the Jamaica and All Terminals lines, as the Jamaica Line provides a great connection to the Long Island Rail Road as well as the Subway, and the All Terminals Line is a great way to navigate the airport. However, the Howard Beach Line is good for locals, and for people wanting to take the A train to Manhattan for some reason.

Stations

The AirTrain JFK currently has 9 stations, 5 of them being airport terminals. There used to be a 10th stop, which was Terminal 2, but after the demolition of Terminal 2, the station was closed and ultimately met the same fate as the terminal it was serving. The table below showcases all current stops as connections to other systems. The list is subject to change however, as JFK Airport (as of the writing of this article) is going through an extensive renovation and rebuilding effort, and thus any station on this list may be demolished or renamed in some way.

Station	Line(s)	Connections
Howard Beach	Howard Beach	The train at Howard Beach
Lefferts Blvd		The B15, Q3 & Q10 bus
Jamaica	Jamaica	Long Island Rail Road trains @ Sutphin Blvd-Archer Av-JFK
Federal Circle	Jamaica Howard Beach	Various shuttles to nearby hotels.
Terminal 8	All Terminals	The Q3 bus
Terminal 7		N/A
Terminal 5
Terminal 4
Terminal 1

(Manic ever-changing) Fares

When the AirTrain JFK opened back in 2003, the fare was $5.00 entering and exiting Jamaica and Howard Beach. The price was steep, especially when the fare for the NYC Subway and local bus systems were $2 at the time. The fare stayed $5 until around November 2019, where ever since then the AirTrain's fare has been steadily rising consistently. The current fare is now $8.50, which is about a 1.7% raise from the original fare compared to the Subway fare's comparable raise of 1.45%. The table below is the history of AirTrain JFK Fare compared to the MTA Subway fare. Hopefully you understand it, because I somehow can.

Last updated April 24th, 2024