Delta has released a new Youtube video, an animated rendering of their new JFK Terminal 4 project.
The main terminal itself looks great, clean lines, high ceilings, plenty of light. Roughly speaking it reminds me of an Asian airport. We’ll see what it looks like in practice, how the materials hold up to use, and how well it’s treated by my fellow New Yorkers (I no longer live there, but I’m still a New Yorker).
The concourses themselves though don’t look nearly as nice, much lower ceilings, although anything new in New York is bound to be an improvement.
Some of the marketing copy in the video, though, just seems to set expectations a little bit too… high
- “We’re investing $1.2 billion of renovations and innovations that will turn JFK into a state of the art hub.”
In New York, I think $1.2 billion buys a third floor walkup. Seriously, it’s a big investment, but I doubt JFK will ever be a ‘start of the art’ anything. It’s certainly not groundbreaking, even taking the imagery at face value. It will however be much nicer than anything else airport-wise in New York and I suppose that’s all they’re really going for as part of the desire to ‘win New York.’
I’d rather fly out of this new terminal than fly from American’s terminal, assuming same class of service for the actual flight. And this’ll be nicer than JetBlue’s airport experience, Delta’s planes are even more pimped out than JetBlue’s in my opinion, but I’d still prefer JetBlue’s legroom. In the end though as a customer who would strive for status I would pick Delta for those privileges rather than for the terminal, and American for the earn and burn features of its program over Delta. Even if Delta’s terminal is nicer.
- “Sky Priority check-in lounge adjacent to security”
Wow, this looks nice, a great idea in the video. It conjures images of the Thai Airways first class check-in lounge in Bangkok, where you have a seat while agents process all of your paperwork for you.
In reality, though, I don’t think Thai-style service will be offered by Delta. And certainly not for all Gold elites and higher and premium cabin passengers. Instead, the lounge will get crowded and wear out quickly, few people will avail themselves of it as a lounge, rather it’s just a dedicated checkin area that elites will pass through with furnishings as an adornment that aren’t ultimately part of the premium experience.
I’d love to be proven wrong, especially since it looks so nice in the video!
- “Extra checkpoint lanes at central security will help you speed through to your gate”
If you build them TSA will staff them? Perhaps, with unionization will come more union jobs and just having the lanes will speed us through. Time will tell.
- “Ample supply of power and usb outlets”
Anything is better than status quo, I’m glad they’re paying attention to this basic need.
- “Additional customs and boarder protection inspection booths will make returning from overseas just as easy as returning from.. Chicago”
Umm… Who wants to fly Chicago – JFK? Delta serves the route, but with four regional jets. Jetblue offers two regional jets and an Airbus. American has a single regional jet. United, based in Chicago, doesn’t even fly to JFK. Seems like an odd place to pick.
But the number of ‘booths’ has rarely been the binding constraint for passing through immigration formalities. Just as often it’s been the government’s computers going down, or shift changes, or unstaffed booths. I don’t think additional booths, though, will make “returning from overseas” just like any ‘ol domestic flight. Only British Airways really has that down with its US immigration preclearance in Shannon, Ireland for the London City Airbus A318 flights.
That’s not a rant about Delta, it’s just that there are some things not in an airline’s control. At least they limited the claims about ease of US immigration to those who are returning to the States. When it comes to Visa processes and questioning of non-residents, even Delta’s marketing execs and consultants couldn’t spin that one!
Interestingly, there were no comments in the video about on-time departures and air traffic congestion, a terminal won’t fix New York’s least pleasant travel features!
Still, great to see, JFK could be a lot better experience… even if it remains too far from Manhattan. And Delta’s investment here is huge. A Delta ground experience should be something that actually does meaningfully create some product differentiation in what many consider to be a commodity market.
A comment should be made about the increased floor space in the new terminal; it seems that for too long airlines have been trying to cram too much into too little space. That additional floor space should make things a lot better than they’ve been.
So is to become of Delta’s vision for JFK T2 and T3? Oh and Aer Lingus has pre-clearance down for flights into the US arriving as domestic :0)
Happy Flying!
-Fish
United does fly in and out of JFK, just not nonstop to ORD, which I think is what you meant. The mentioning of Chicago is probably taking aim at AA and (new) UA, both of which are vying for New York (with consideration of EWR added in).
The SkyPriority check-in lounge looks exactly like AA’s setup at T8 – basically 2 sets of frosted walls encircling the stalls, but you still need to get in line for either first or business class. There are a few couches, but those are for waiting family members or if you had nothing else better to do without going through security. The employees are certainly not going to do a sit-down check-in.
@Fish well yeah anyone flying SNN-US would pre-clear, just as Canadian transborder flights preclear.
One of the nicest things about the Asian airports is the incredibly friendly and helpful staff. Somehow, I don’t see that coming to JFK, no matter how much money DL puts into the terminal.
Still, I’ll give them points for trying.
It’s about time they blew this place up. I had the misfortune of making an overseas connection with Delta through JFK in May, what a nightmare that was. The airport is severely dated, it’s like dropping into a 1950s time warp.
The concourses were stifling hot, if they had A/C it sure wasn’t working and I was drenched with sweat. The gates are laid out in some illogical mess, every passenger seemed to be circling around in a daze . The Delta Sky Club was a joke, like visiting George Jetson’s grandparents home. That’s the first and last time I book a connection through there.
Come to think of it, Delta business class to Ireland was pretty shabby too. Broken seats, malfunctioning video – thank God for Ambien.
Their T4 looks a lot like the current T4 – aka the (newer) international terminal.
Not sure why they wouldn’t label it 2 or 3, as those are their current terminal numbers.
AA’s JFK Terminal 8 build was originally slated to be a $1 billion (or slightly more) investment too.
About the DL check-in lounge, that may turn out to be nothing different than what AA has at JFK Terminal 8 and DL already has at its own terminal for SkyPriority/business class check-in: some seats and small tables, perhaps with more contemporary furniture and fixtures.
Hey Gary, I’m curious to hear why you’d prefer to fly out of this new terminal over AA’s T8. Seems the AA terminal layout is better for minimizing walking distances, and very similar as far as check-in, security, and concourse areas. Thanks for sharing your thoughts!
@John-Paul just newer fresher, we’ll see how it pans out in reality! All we have now is animation 🙂
The thing I noticed in the video, is that Delta apparently assumes virtually all of their passengers will be white or Asian. I think I counted four black customers (and one taxi driver) out of the hundreds and hundreds of animated people they drew.
@Tom perhaps this isn’t realistic, but I suspect that Delta simply expects that most of their *animated cartoon* customers will be Caucasian or Asian?
If the new terminal is ever that empty, Delta will go bankrupt from the cost of building it.