A terminal at New York City’s John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK) will remain closed on Friday after an electrical power outage, disrupted inbound and outbound flights throughout Thursday’s travel schedule. The outage began in Terminal 1 – serving international carriers like Air France, Lufthansa and Air New Zealand.
According to airport operators, the outage was caused by an electrical panel failure that led to a small fire. The fire was quickly extinguished but caused significant delays the last couple of days.
In a tweet released Thursday night, airport operators said that the international terminal would remain closed “due to electrical issues.” They further advised travelers to check in with their carriers for updated flight status’ before coming to the airport.
JFK Terminal 1 will remain closed on 2/17 due to electrical issues as the Port Authority continues working with the terminal’s operator to restore flight operations as quickly as possible. Travelers should check with their carriers for flight status before coming to the airport.
— John F. Kennedy Airport (@JFKairport) February 17, 2023
A commercial flight from Air New Zealand to the United States, (one of the longest commercial flights in the world) had to turn and fly back to its departure airport, over 16 hours later because of New York’s JFK Terminal 1 power outage.
“Due to an electrical fire in Terminal 1 at JFK Airport and the terminal’s subsequent closure, NZ2 Auckland to New York was forced to divert back to Auckland,” a New Zealand Air spokesperson said in a statement.
New York City and New Jersey’s Port Authority is working alongside the owner of JFK to work with terminal operators to restore flight operations as quickly as possible. JFK is working to accommodate affected flights by incorporating the other four terminals at the airport.
Port Authority representatives have yet to present an update on the outage – hopefully it gets resolved soon so no disruptions bleed into the busy weekend.
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