Taking A Virtual Tour of Delta's JFK T4

Back in April, I spent some time at Delta Air Lines' headquarters in Atlanta.  As part of that visit, I interviewed Holden Shannon, the airline's senior vice president of corporate strategy and real estate on several topics.

The topic that interested me the most was an update on the $1.2 billion expansion at JFK Airport's T4.  The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey has worked with all its tenant airlines to upgrade terminals at the airport, the latest being T5, occupied by JetBlue.

Delta currently occupies T2 and T3. T2 handles flights to Los Angeles, San Francisco and London Heathrow, and is also used to check in BusinessElite, SkyMiles Medallion and SkyTeam Elite Plus members.  T3 -- known by frequent travelers as the ThirdWorld port -- handles all of Delta's other flights.

In the July 4 issue of Aviation Week (subscribers only), my interview with Shannon updating the T4 project was published. "Delta would like to take advantage of the premier facility, T4, and make it stronger and better, he says. “We believe it’s been underutilized in the past 10 years," he said.

Partnering with JFKIAT is another reason that adding to T4 is a very economical expansion relative to what Delta would have had to embark upon if it had built a new terminal, said Shannon. “T2 and T3 are chock-a-block full. To build a new facility, we would have had to [alter] our schedule, but for the availability and capacity that’s waiting for us at T4.”

And now Delta is offering this virtual tour of what T4 will look like once construction is completed, which is scheduled for 2013.  Enjoy!

Tags: tw99, delta, jfk, airport