Cathay Pacific to make a giant transfer in New York, open first-ever JFK lounge
Cathay Pacific is making huge strikes at New York’s John F. Kennedy Worldwide Airport (JFK).
The Hong Kong-based airline introduced this week that it’s going to turn out to be one of many key inaugural tenants on the airport’s new Terminal 6.
This transfer to Terminal 6, which is scheduled to open in early 2026, will mark a serious shift for Cathay, which now operates from Terminal 8.
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Terminal 8 is taken into account the Oneworld alliance hub at JFK. The anchor tenant is American Airways (a founding member of the Oneworld airline alliance), and many of the different Oneworld airways flying to JFK have relocated their operations there following a current modernization and growth undertaking accomplished by American and airport authorities in 2022. (Cathay moved from Terminal 7 to Terminal 8 in January 2017.)
Cathay’s transfer to Terminal 6 is essentially prompted by the truth that the airline will have the ability to open its personal proprietary lounge at JFK to serve its three each day flights to the airport. The airline did not share particulars in regards to the area apart from saying it is going to be almost 10,000 sq. ft. The lounge at JFK will turn out to be Cathay’s second U.S. airport lounge after the one at San Francisco Worldwide Airport (SFO).
Many top-tier worldwide airways like to regulate the complete end-to-end premium passenger expertise, and opening a lounge at an outstation is an effective way for the service to perform that. Plus, Cathay at the moment must compensate American for the flyers that it sends to the Soho, Greenwich and Admirals Membership lounges in Terminal 8, which in all probability will get fairly costly given all of the lounge-eligible vacationers flying on Cathay from New York.
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“It has lengthy been our ambition to offer our prospects a signature Cathay Pacific airport expertise at JFK. We’re delighted about our partnership with JFK Millennium Companions, which can make this dream a actuality,” stated Chris van den Hooven, Cathay Pacific’s senior vice chairman of the Americas, in an announcement in regards to the transfer.
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Along with Cathay Pacific, the Lufthansa Group, Aer Lingus and JetBlue have all shared their intent to function flights from Terminal 6.
The brand new Terminal 6 is a part of the $19 billion JFK transformation undertaking spearheaded by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, the federal government company answerable for managing the airport. The transformation contains two brand-new terminals opening in 2026.
Terminal 6 is the smaller of the 2 initiatives. As soon as full, this $4.2 billion undertaking will span 1.2 million sq. ft and provide 10 new gates — 9 of which might deal with wide-body jets. The brand new terminal can be linked airside to the adjoining Terminal 5, which is house to JetBlue Airways’ JFK hub.
The opposite undertaking is the development of the $9.5 billion new Terminal One, which can turn out to be certainly one of JFK’s flagship worldwide terminals.
The brand new Terminal One at JFK will incorporate the present and former websites of terminals 1, 2 and three into a large 2.4 million-square-foot worldwide terminal that can anchor the south facet of the airport.
The primary huge milestone, which incorporates the brand new arrivals and departures corridor and the primary set of 14 new gates, is predicted to open in 2026. When totally full in 2030, the brand new Terminal One will characteristic 23 gates, a redesigned check-in corridor and overhauled arrival areas.
“New York JFK is among the many high areas in our world lounge technique. We’re really excited by this chance to convey the signature Cathay Pacific lounge expertise to our premium prospects at this essential port in our community. This new lounge will characteristic a lot of thrilling developments that can put it on the forefront of our lounge proposition, and we stay up for sharing extra particulars with our prospects on the applicable time,” stated Vivian Lo, Cathay Pacific’s basic supervisor of the client expertise, in an announcement.
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