Updated August 2026
Look at a map of New York’s JFK Airport and the terminal numbers seem like someone lost part of the list.
As of August 2026, JFK’s operating passenger terminals are:
- Terminal 1
- Terminal 4
- Terminal 5
- Terminal 7
- Terminal 8
There is no operating Terminal 2. No Terminal 3. No Terminal 6—at least not quite yet. And no Terminal 9.
So why aren’t JFK’s terminal numbers sequential?
Because those numbers are pieces of airport history, not positions in a neatly numbered row. JFK has spent more than 60 years building terminals, knocking them down, combining them and replacing them. Some replacement buildings kept an old number. Others swallowed two terminals into one. Some numbers simply disappeared when their buildings did.
And now the story is getting stranger: Terminal 6 is coming back.
| Terminal Number | What Happened? |
|---|---|
| 1 | Still operating; being replaced by the New Terminal One |
| 2 | Closed and demolished in 2023; site becoming part of New Terminal One |
| 3 | Former Pan Am Worldport; demolished in 2013 |
| 4 | Operating |
| 5 | Operating; JetBlue’s terminal |
| 6 | Old terminal demolished in 2011; an entirely new Terminal 6 is now being built |
| 7 | Still operating in 2026, but scheduled to be demolished as Terminal 6 expands |
| 8 | Operating; current Terminal 8 replaced the old Terminals 8 and 9 |
| 9 | Demolished as American built today’s Terminal 8 |
Why Does JFK Have Missing Terminal Numbers?
JFK was never designed around one giant passenger terminal.
When the airport was still called Idlewild, planners developed an unusual concept known as Terminal City. Rather than putting every airline into one enormous building, major U.S. airlines were allowed to operate their own terminals.
That produced an extraordinary collection of buildings.
Pan Am had the Worldport. TWA had Eero Saarinen’s famous Flight Center. National Airlines built I.M. Pei’s Sundrome. American, United, Eastern and other airlines had their own facilities.
It was almost a collection of individual airline headquarters arranged around an airport rather than the standardized Terminal A, B and C layout familiar at many airports today.
As airlines disappeared, merged and changed strategies, those buildings became obsolete at different times.
JFK modernized them one by one.
The terminal numbers therefore tell you which facility survived the redevelopment process. They do not tell you how many terminals currently exist.
That is why JFK can jump directly from Terminal 1 to Terminal 4.
What Happened to JFK Terminal 2?
Terminal 2 was one of JFK’s oldest surviving terminals.
It opened in 1962 as a shared facility built for Northeast Airlines, Braniff and Northwest. Much later it became closely associated with Delta Air Lines.
For years, Delta divided its JFK operation between Terminals 2 and 4. That was hardly ideal for an airline trying to operate a major hub.
Delta gradually consolidated into an expanded Terminal 4, allowing Terminal 2 to close.
Terminal 2 ended passenger operations in January 2023 and was subsequently demolished.
Its site was valuable. JFK’s enormous New Terminal One is being constructed across the existing Terminal 1 site and the land formerly occupied by Terminals 2 and 3.
The land on which it once stood is becoming part of a much larger Terminal 1.
What Happened to JFK Terminal 3?
Terminal 3 had a considerably more glamorous beginning.
It was the famous Pan Am Worldport.
Pan American World Airways opened the original terminal in 1960. Its enormous projecting roof became one of the defining architectural images of the early Jet Age.
Later, Delta used Terminal 3 as part of its JFK operation.
But by the 21st century, the Worldport was an aging building designed for a very different era of aviation. There were efforts to save the original part of the building due its history, but the airport had already saved the Terminal 5 headhouse and opted not to preserve another building, despite its significace. Delta expanded Terminal 4 and shifted operations there.
Terminal 3 was demolished in 2013.
For a time, the former Terminal 3 site provided aircraft parking and operating space associated with Terminal 4.
Now that land is also part of the much larger New Terminal One project.
Why Does JFK Jump From Terminal 1 to Terminal 4?
This is therefore the easiest gap to explain.
There used to be three terminals in that sequence:
1 ? 2 ? 3 ? 4
Terminal 3 disappeared in 2013.
Terminal 2 disappeared a decade later.
Nobody then renamed Terminal 4 to Terminal 2 simply to close the gap.
Doing that would create far more confusion than leaving the missing numbers alone. Airline computer systems, airport maps, road signs, tickets, gate information, employee procedures and decades of passenger familiarity already refer to Terminal 4 as Terminal 4.
So the airport kept the number.
What Happened to the Old JFK Terminal 6?
This is the most interesting missing number because it is about to stop being missing.
The original Terminal 6 opened in 1969 as the National Airlines Sundrome.
Designed by I.M. Pei & Partners, it was one of JFK’s distinctive Jet Age buildings.
Over its life, the terminal was used by a long list of airlines, including National, TWA, United and eventually JetBlue.
JetBlue used Terminal 6 during its early years at JFK before moving into the new Terminal 5 in 2008.
That left the Sundrome without its main tenant.
The old Terminal 6 was demolished in 2011.
For about 15 years, that left a conspicuous gap between Terminal 5 and Terminal 7.
Terminal 6 Is Coming Back
JFK is now recycling the number.
A completely new Terminal 6 is under construction on the airport’s north side.
This is not a renovation of I.M. Pei’s old Sundrome. That building is long gone.
The new Terminal 6 is a $4.2 billion, 1.2-million-square-foot project that will ultimately have 10 gates, nine of them capable of accommodating widebody aircraft.
The first gates are scheduled to open in 2026, with the terminal being completed in phases.
It will also connect with JetBlue’s Terminal 5, creating a much larger passenger complex on the north side of JFK.
So Terminal 6 provides a rare example of an airport terminal number dying and later being resurrected for an entirely different building.
What Happens to Terminal 7?
Terminal 7 is still very much alive as of August 2026.
JFK’s current terminal directory continues to list it as an operating terminal.
But its days are numbered.
The new Terminal 6 is being built in phases. The completed terminal will occupy not only the site of the old Terminal 6, but also the site currently occupied by Terminal 7.
Terminal 7 therefore remains in operation while the first portion of Terminal 6 is built. As airlines move and the next construction phase proceeds, Terminal 7 is scheduled to be demolished.
Eventually JFK should jump:
Terminal 6 ? Terminal 8
with no Terminal 7 at all.
The missing-number problem isn’t going away. It is merely changing.
What Happened to JFK Terminal 9?
Terminal 9 disappeared for a different reason.
The building that eventually became Terminal 9 originally opened in 1959 for United and Delta. United remained there for decades, while other airlines also used the facility at various times.
By the 1990s, Terminal 9 had become part of American Airlines’ JFK operation.
American had an unusual arrangement:
- Terminal 8
- Terminal 9
Rather than keep two aging adjacent terminals, American undertook a major project to replace both with one new facility.
The present-day Terminal 8 was built in phases while the old buildings were removed.
The old Terminals 8 and 9 were both demolished, and today’s much larger Terminal 8 replaced them.
Terminal 8 kept the lower of the two numbers.
Terminal 9 disappeared from the map.
Wait—There Was an Old Terminal 8 Too?
Yes.
The Terminal 8 you use today is not the original Terminal 8.
American’s original terminal opened in 1960 and was famous for an enormous stained-glass façade.
As American rebuilt its JFK facilities, that terminal and neighboring Terminal 9 were removed.
The current Terminal 8 opened in stages during the 2000s and retained the Terminal 8 name.
This helps explain an important point about JFK:
A terminal number doesn’t necessarily refer to one building that has existed continuously since the number was created.
Sometimes the number survives even though the physical terminal does not.
Terminal 5 Is Strange Too
Terminal 5 has its own unusual history.
The original Terminal 5 was TWA’s spectacular Flight Center, designed by Eero Saarinen and opened in 1962.
After TWA disappeared, the terminal stopped functioning as a normal passenger terminal.
JetBlue eventually built a new Terminal 5 behind it, opening the modern facility in 2008.
But unlike most of JFK’s lost Jet Age architecture, Saarinen’s famous building survived, the back of the terminal being demolished.
Today it is the centerpiece of the TWA Hotel.
So at Terminal 5, both the number and a major part of the historic terminal survived, even though travelers now use a much newer passenger facility.
Why Didn’t JFK Just Renumber Everything?
At first glance, renumbering the terminals sounds sensible.
Why not simply call the remaining buildings:
- Terminal 1
- Terminal 2
- Terminal 3
- Terminal 4
- Terminal 5
The problem is everything else that would have to change with them.
Terminal numbers appear in:
- Airline reservations
- Boarding passes
- Airport road signs
- AirTrain stations and maps
- Airline apps
- Airport websites
- Ground-transportation systems
- Employee procedures
- Navigation apps
- Thousands of travel websites and guides
Calling today’s Terminal 8 “Terminal 5” might make a map prettier, but it would make years of existing information instantly wrong.
JFK has generally chosen to tolerate gaps instead.
JFK Terminal Numbers Don’t Tell You Distance
This leads to another important misconception.
Do not use the terminal numbers to estimate how close two terminals are.
The numbers are identifiers, not measurements.
A missing number does not mean there is an empty passenger terminal you need to walk past.
And two consecutive numbers do not necessarily mean the terminals operate as one connected building.
If you are making a connection at JFK, check the airport’s current map and connection instructions for the terminals involved rather than looking at the numbers and guessing.
JFK’s official terminal directory is the place to check the current layout.
What Terminals Does JFK Have in 2026?
As of August 2026, JFK’s official passenger-terminal directory lists:
- Terminal 1 – primarily international airlines
- Terminal 4 – Delta and numerous international airlines
- Terminal 5 – primarily JetBlue
- Terminal 7 – multiple international airlines
- Terminal 8 – American Airlines and numerous oneworld partners
But this is a transitional period.
Both the New Terminal One and the new Terminal 6 are being built as part of the Port Authority’s $19 billion transformation of JFK.
The airport map will continue changing through the rest of the decade.
What Will JFK’s Terminal Numbers Look Like After the Redevelopment?
The long-term layout is much simpler physically, although the numbering will still have gaps.
The major passenger terminals are expected to center around:
- Terminal 1
- Terminal 4
- Terminal 5
- Terminal 6
- Terminal 8
The New Terminal One is being built in phases and is ultimately expected to replace the existing Terminal 1 while spreading across the former Terminal 2 and 3 sites.
The new Terminal 6 will consume the old Terminal 6 site and eventually today’s Terminal 7 site.
Terminal 4 has already undergone major expansion.
JetBlue’s Terminal 5 is being refreshed.
Terminal 8 has been expanded and modernized around American Airlines and its partners.
So even after billions of dollars of construction, JFK will probably still make a first-time visitor ask:
Where did Terminals 2, 3 and 7 go?
JFK Has Started Fixing the Same Problem With Gate Numbers
There is an interesting smaller version of this issue inside the terminals themselves.
JetBlue recently renumbered the gates in Terminal 5 so that the gate number itself identifies the terminal.
Instead of the old two-digit gate numbers, T5 gates now use numbers beginning with 5.
That means a gate such as 521 immediately tells you that you are looking for Terminal 5.
We explain the change in JetBlue JFK Terminal 5 Gate Renumbering: What Changed at T5?.
It is a much easier numbering problem to solve than renaming entire terminals that millions of passengers already know.
A Short History of JFK’s Missing Terminals
| Terminal | Historic Identity | What Replaced It? |
|---|---|---|
| 2 | Northeast/Braniff/Northwest terminal; later Delta | New Terminal One development |
| 3 | Pan Am Worldport; later Delta | Initially Terminal 4 operating space; now New Terminal One development |
| 6 | National Airlines Sundrome; later TWA, United and JetBlue | New Terminal 6 now being built |
| 9 | United/Delta terminal; later American | Current Terminal 8 |
The Terminal Numbers Are Really a Timeline
Once you know the history, JFK’s strange numbering starts making more sense.
Terminal 2 is missing because Delta consolidated into Terminal 4 and the building was cleared for New Terminal One.
Terminal 3 is missing because the Pan Am Worldport was demolished after Delta moved into an expanded Terminal 4.
Terminal 6 disappeared after JetBlue moved to Terminal 5, but the number is now being revived for a new terminal.
Terminal 9 disappeared because American combined the functions of old Terminals 8 and 9 into today’s Terminal 8.
And Terminal 7 is likely to become the next missing number as the new Terminal 6 expands.
The sequence may look broken on an airport map.
In reality, it is a condensed history of more than half a century of New York aviation.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why are JFK’s terminal numbers not sequential?
JFK once had more terminals. As old terminals were demolished, combined or replaced, the airport generally kept the numbers of the surviving facilities instead of renumbering the entire airport.
Why is there no Terminal 2 at JFK?
Terminal 2 closed in 2023 after Delta consolidated its JFK operation into Terminal 4. The building was demolished, and its site is becoming part of the New Terminal One development.
Why is there no Terminal 3 at JFK?
Terminal 3 was the former Pan Am Worldport and later served Delta. It was demolished in 2013 after Delta expanded its operation at Terminal 4.
Does JFK have a Terminal 6?
There is no operating Terminal 6 as of August 2026, but a completely new Terminal 6 is under construction. The first gates are scheduled to open in 2026.
What happened to the old JFK Terminal 6?
The original Terminal 6 was the I.M. Pei-designed Sundrome. JetBlue was its final major tenant before moving to Terminal 5 in 2008. The building was demolished in 2011.
Is the new JFK Terminal 6 the same building as the old one?
No. The original Terminal 6 was demolished in 2011. The new Terminal 6 is an entirely new $4.2 billion terminal being built on the north side of JFK.
Why is there no Terminal 9 at JFK?
The old Terminal 9 was eventually used by American Airlines. American replaced its old Terminals 8 and 9 with the much larger present-day Terminal 8, and Terminal 9 disappeared from the airport map.
Is JFK Terminal 8 the original Terminal 8?
No. American Airlines’ original Terminal 8 dated from 1960. The current Terminal 8 was built during a major redevelopment that replaced both the old Terminal 8 and Terminal 9.
Is JFK Terminal 7 closing?
Terminal 7 is still operating as of August 2026, but the completed new Terminal 6 is planned to occupy the Terminal 7 site. Terminal 7 is therefore expected to be demolished as the Terminal 6 project advances.
What terminals are currently open at JFK?
JFK’s official airport directory currently lists Terminals 1, 4, 5, 7 and 8.
What terminals will JFK have when construction is finished?
The major passenger-terminal layout is expected to consist of Terminals 1, 4, 5, 6 and 8, although airport construction and airline assignments continue to evolve.
Why doesn’t JFK just renumber its terminals?
Renumbering would require changes across airline systems, boarding information, road signs, maps, ground transportation and countless other references. Leaving gaps in the sequence is less disruptive.
Are Terminal 5 and Terminal 6 next to each other?
The new Terminal 6 is being constructed next to Terminal 5 and is designed to connect with it, creating a larger terminal complex on JFK’s north side.
