Delta’s new JFK terminal plan lifts off

Delta’s Edward Bastian and JFK’s Terminal 4

Delta Air Lines is said to have reached a deal with the Port Authority of New York & New Jersey to ditch its crowded, outdated terminal at John F. Kennedy International Airport for a renovated and expanded terminal next door, according to the New York Times. The deal involves demolishing Delta’s current Terminal 3, the PanAm Worldport, (Delta also operates Terminal 2, which would be kept intact) and moving the airline into Terminal 4, which would get a $1.2 billion renovation and expansion and would eventually house Delta’s foreign flights. The project, which is to be presented today before the Port Authority’s board, would be completed in 2013 at the earliest. A similar deal for Delta to leave Terminal 3 — which Delta president Edward Bastian recently called “the worst facility that we operate” — was announced in 2000 but then abandoned after the Sept. 11 attacks. Another push for a plan in 2005 never got off the ground. [NYT]