JFK Terminal 1 is dealing with a power outage at the moment, which is having major impacts on flight operations.
In this post:
JFK Terminal 1 suffers fire & power outage
New York John F. Kennedy Airport (JFK) Terminal 1 is currently suffering from a “power disruption,” or at least that’s how it’s officially being explained.
This was first flagged this morning by @xJonNYC.
According to some reports, there was a fire overnight in Terminal 1, though details beyond that are limited. The fire has been extinguished, but the impacts on the terminal’s power supply could be long lasting. All the reports I’ve seen suggest that the terminal could continue to face issues for quite some time to come. As of Thursday afternoon, Terminal 1 remains closed, and there’s no timeline for that changing.
For those not familiar with Terminal 1 at JFK, this is the terminal used by many international airlines, including Air France, Air New Zealand, Korean Air, Lufthansa, SWISS, Turkish, and many more.
Flight disruptions due to JFK Terminal 1 closure
While airport officials claim that some flights may be arriving and departing from different terminals as a result of this power disruption, the reality seems much worse than that. Many long haul flights that were bound for New York are returning to their origins or diverting to other airports.
For example:
- Air New Zealand flight NZ2 from Auckland returned to its origin after roughly eight hours enroute to New York
- Korean Air flight KE85 from Seoul returned to its origin after over five hours enroute to New York
- Lufthansa flight LH400 from Frankfurt diverted to Boston
- SWISS flight LX16 from Zurich diverted to Newark
It’s pretty drastic to see airlines diverting all the way to their origin, especially that Air New Zealand flight, which will probably be in the air for close to 16 hours, only to land back where it started.
Bottom line
JFK Terminal 1 reportedly suffered a fire overnight, which has now caused a major power outage. It’s anyone’s guess when the terminal will reopen. For the time being, this is causing significant flight disruptions. It’s not just that flights are operating to and from different terminals at JFK, but rather some flights are returning to their origins, while others are diverting to other airports.
Were any OMAAT readers scheduled to fly into or out of JFK T1 today?
I was caught up in the shutdown. Flying JAL 5 to Tokyo Haneda and fire alarms kept going on for hours. Parked at terminal 8 because T1 parking is closed. Took shuttle to T1. Ended up taking shuttle back to T8 where my flight departed from. Even most of the entrance doors at T1 were closed.
I don’t understand why they can’t borrow a gate from their partners eg Air France with Delta. Diverting seems costly and an inconvenience and turning back making a 16 hour trip to nowhere.....
Terminal One is a dump. It is the smallest now of JFK's terminals, and one of the most crowded and congested at peak times. Flew out of there to Switzerland and back two weeks ago. It was a miserable experience. It will take years for the the new Terminal One to take shape and eventually replace it and it cannot come soon enough. Amazing to think when T1 opened in 1998, it was an oasis...
Terminal One is a dump. It is the smallest now of JFK's terminals, and one of the most crowded and congested at peak times. Flew out of there to Switzerland and back two weeks ago. It was a miserable experience. It will take years for the the new Terminal One to take shape and eventually replace it and it cannot come soon enough. Amazing to think when T1 opened in 1998, it was an oasis but over the years, as Delta has expanded further into T4, many airlines have been pushed out and consolidated at T1 creating a huge mess there.
You can't really compare terminals in JFK, they are independently operated.
One of the possible reasons not covered here or in other blogs as to why airlines can't just go to a different terminal.
Turn backs after multiple hours in flight seem questionable at an airport that has multiple terminals with USCIS processing ability. At worst case remote stands could be used at congested terminals for flights already in flight. Since so many flights did go to other terminals you have to wonder who made the calls on the flights that turned back?
Waiting for @Sean M to tell us all it's a lucrative day for those passengers originating from the EU.
Because terminal fire is not an extraordinary circumstance due to the claim that someone else could have taken a reasonable measure to avoid the extraordinary circumstance from occuring.
Ka-ching!!
Ka-ching!!
Ka-ching!!
lol. Since the airlines of course could have avoided it. Sadly the world we live in where people would do everything possible to claim compensation as they plan to donate it to the Turkish earthquake relief fund.
I was on todays flight LX22 from Geneva to JFK. The captain informed us about a fire at JFK Terminal 1 and that we‘ll be landing in Boston instead. That was about 2-3 hours before landing. At about 11.30am ET. The flight was pretty empty. I was in Business and only two others were with me in the small business cabin in front. But even further back our plane was pretty empty. That somehow helped...
I was on todays flight LX22 from Geneva to JFK. The captain informed us about a fire at JFK Terminal 1 and that we‘ll be landing in Boston instead. That was about 2-3 hours before landing. At about 11.30am ET. The flight was pretty empty. I was in Business and only two others were with me in the small business cabin in front. But even further back our plane was pretty empty. That somehow helped because the amazing crew could tell everybody what their options were.
Unfortunately Swiss wasn‘t able to provide any further transportation so basically everybody was on it‘s own. They suggested Amtrak or Busses to New York later today - strangely not suggesting getting a flight. I had bought internet on board (ridiculously expensive at Swiss) and was actually able to book a flight. But by the time we landed and most of the people were trying to get a onward flight, all flights to New York were sold out for the day.
After landing in Boston we had to wait for busses and stairs and immigration took almost two hours. I had to cancel my JetBlue Flight and rebooked for tomorrow. So I’ll spend a night in Boston. And will forward the receipts to Swiss as we were told to do.
More problems with Lufthansa - the shit airline - !! first they had a computer outage in Frankfurt that shut down Frankfurt Airport and the airline the other day, then tomorrow is a Germany- wide strike at all of the airports and now this! What a shit show.
If you have information that Lufthansa caused the fire in JFK, do tell.
Lufthansa isn’t responsible for the strikes in Germany. Their staff aren’t striking and they are a victim of it.
Let’s hope that terminal 1 is damaged beyond repair. What a hell hole it is
I am curious why a flight would turn around and not divert to an alternative US airport. Most of these airlines have good partnerships that would help get people to New York from anywhere else in the US
I suspect it would have to do with airlines having trouble finding legal crews or waiting for them to turn legal while one of their longhaul planes sits idle at a foreign airport
I saw that all of the Air France flights from CDG to JFK did take off and land in JFK (albeit a bit delayed). I was able to see on Flightaware that some arrived in to T7 and other(s) into T4.
Interesting is that all but one of the flights from JFK to CDG have been cancelled. The one that has not been cancelled (AF11) is departing out of T4 according to the Air France...
I saw that all of the Air France flights from CDG to JFK did take off and land in JFK (albeit a bit delayed). I was able to see on Flightaware that some arrived in to T7 and other(s) into T4.
Interesting is that all but one of the flights from JFK to CDG have been cancelled. The one that has not been cancelled (AF11) is departing out of T4 according to the Air France app.
So it will be interesting to see how Air France recovers from this. I imagine there will be a large cascade effect in their network given how there are only 19 77W LP-equipped aircraft and at least 3 or 4 are now stuck at JFK. I can't even imagine how passengers are being accomodated...
I would imagine Delta is doing what it can to accommodate AF but there just isn't space at T4 until late in the evening or before DL's operations kick into gear.
DL handles KL and I would imagine that DL's seats for most flights to CDG and elsewhere in Europe have filled up while other passengers are being routed through AMS.
Given that Germany is offline tomorrow, transatlantic travel will be a royal mess for days.
Air New Zealand could divert to LAX and rebook pax from there. Especially if many weren’t terminating there. Makes no sense to return to AKL
I love the amateur airline ops people in the OMAAT comments that know better!
What Icarus said is completely reasonable. “The pros” are sometimes stuck in their own habits and could use a fresh perspective.
I’m sick of seeing this same comment from you about amateurism.
“The pros” should be checking out the OMAAT comments!
LOL
Oh they are. Very much so.
I’m not amateur, moron. I’m fully conversant with more than you could possibly imagine.
Eh, you're all amateurs. Tucker is the real aviation pro, and bar none this fire is due to woke culture.
;-)
It would appear that JAL 5 from HND taxied out to T8 @JFK - near the new BA gates (based upon Flightradar24). Maybe their going to need to relocate earlier than planned.
Yes, JL5 was at T8 this afternoon. I heard the boarding call for the flight to HND and was searching for news that they'd relocated ahead of schedule...
We were on JL5 and are in HND now awaiting our connection. We departed 3+ hours late. Boarding passes were old school, printed 4+ to a page on regular paper and the staff had to find the right page and tear off your part. At the gate they ripped off a chunk of that to do a physical count for the manifest. Impressed it worked so far. Who knows about bags - they made it to HND and are being retagged. Staff wrote down size and color so at least there is hope!
I noticed a Turkish A330 and Air France 777 at Terminal 7 and was so confused. Tried looking up if there was a terminal swap or soemthing now that BA left. This makes much more sense.
I'm flying out of T4 today and noticed some strangeness - it looked like Korean Airlines was running their checkin out of T4 instead. this explains why!
I can only imagine the reactions in the plane when they announced they'd be returning to origin 8 HOURS after takeoff.
For the sake of those passengers I can hope the multiple Karens on my delayed flight out of Denver last week were not on board.