SEE: JFK Airport's $13B Renovation Plan Unveiled

QUEENS, NY — John F. Kennedy Airport will be consolidated, expanded and made easier on the eyes under a sweeping $13 billion renovation unveiled Thursday. Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced specific plans for an overhaul of the airport that's been in the works since last year.

Airlines will develop two brand-new terminals containing a total of 4.1 million square feet by replacing three existing terminals and using the space where two others used to be, the Democratic governor's office said.

In the end, the project will boost the bustling airport's capacity by 15 million passengers a year and make things easier for travelers, according to Cuomo's office. It's expected to be completed in 2025.

"While leaders in Washington talk about investing in infrastructure, we're actually doing it at historic levels and the transformation of JFK Airport into a 21st century transportation hub will ensure New York remains the nation's front door to the world," Cuomo said in a statement.

Cuomo, who is seeking re-election this year, first announced plans to revamp JFK in January 2017 at a cost of $10 billion. Plans for the project come amid work on an $8 billion makeover of the nearby LaGuardia Airport.

JFK is the busiest of the New York City region's three major airports overseen by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. It served more than 59 million passengers last year, the sixth-highest number in the nation, according to the Port Authority. But it also ranked toward the bottom of a recent customer satisfaction survey.

"The existing passenger facilities simply cannot handle projected volumes of passengers," Rick Cotton, the Port Authority's executive director, said Thursday. "Even worse, JFK has endured decades of underinvestment. Today, as we all know, it is outmoded, far below global standards."

The biggest piece of the JFK overhaul is a new $7 billion, 2.9 million-square-foot terminal on the airport's south side developed by a coalition of four international airlines: Lufthansa, Air France, Japan Airlines and Korean Air Lines.

With 23 international gates, children's play areas, intererior green space and more than 230,000 square feet of retail, dining and other "concessions," the new facility will replace terminals 1 and 2 and use the former site of the now-demolished Terminal 3, Cuomo's office said. It will also be connected to the existing Terminal 4.

JetBlue will tear down Terminal 7 and also use the former site of Terminal 6 to develop a new $3 billion, 1.2-million-square-foot terminal on the airport's north side, Cuomo's office said.

It will boast 12 international gates, 74,000 square feet of retail, 30,000 square feet worth of lounges and 15,000 square feet of recreational space, plus a connection to the existing Terminal 5.

The project will also simplify the roadways within the airport by creating two loop-like "ring roads" linking the terminals, while other fixes will aim to ease traffic on the Van Wyck Expressway and the Kew Gardens Interchange, the governor's office said.

The renovations will be funded by $12 billion in private investment, or 90 percent of the total tab, according to Cuomo's office.

The governor's lengthy press release announcing the project makes no mention of a new runway, which would reportedly help the airport accommodate increasing demand. Building one, though, would likely be expensive and controversial because of noise and pollution, The Wall Street Journal reported last month.

See renderings of the renovated JFK Airport above.

(Lead image: Gov. Andrew Cuomo unveiled specific plans to overhaul John F. Kennedy Airport on Thursday. Images courtesy of Gov. Andrew Cuomo's office)