Port Authority of New York and New Jersey and Aero JFK II, LLC have signed a long-term lease for a 346,000 sq ft cargo handling facility at John F. Kennedy International Airport. The $132m combined investment in the facility and taxiway upgrades represent the first phase of the modernisation of air cargo operations at JFK.
“We are transforming JFK into a world-class, state-of-the-art airport and — with this new cargo facility — a major economic engine,” The Governor of New York stated. “With this much-needed modernization of JFK’s cargo operations, we will help create jobs and support economic growth across the entire New York metropolitan area for years to come.”
In addition to approving the $70m investment for the new cargo warehouse, the Port Authority Board also approved a $62.2m project to rehabilitate and enhance Taxiways CA and CB, which were last rehabilitated in the 1980s and designed for now-outdated fleets of aircraft. The runway rehabilitation of Taxiways CA and CB includes the realignment of portions of both taxiways to allow the industry’s largest cargo planes to access the airport’s north cargo area, along with electrical and drainage improvements and upgrades of crossing taxiway areas.
The Vision Plan recommendations for enhancing cargo operations call for consolidation, upgrading and expansion of cargo facilities onto the airport’s north side, reducing transfer times, positioning cargo operations where there is convenient, efficient road access to off-airport cargo operations, and phasing out existing obsolete and underused warehouses. More than half of JFK’s cargo buildings are more than 40 years old, and do not meet current industry standards, including the two that will be demolished on the site of the proposed new facility.
Source: Governor of New York
