---
title: "JFK — John F. Kennedy Airport, New York · Orbit"
description: "John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK/KJFK) serves New York, United States. Opened 1947, named after John F. Kennedy, 62.4 million passengers in 2023."
url: https://orbitflights.app/airports/jfk
---

New York · United States · North America

# JFK — John F. Kennedy

John F. Kennedy International Airport serves New York, United States, 21 km from the centre of New York City, and sits at 40.6°N, 73.8°W. This site carries 28 routes touching it, with the great circle distance for each.

**IATA**
JFK
the code on your bag tag

**ICAO**
KJFK
used by air traffic control

**Opened**
1947
per Wikidata

**Passengers**
62.4M
in 2023

## History & name

John F. Kennedy International Airport opened in 1947 and is named after John F. Kennedy (1917–1963), president of the United States from 1961 to 1963\. The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey operates it 21 km from New York City, and it handled 62.4 million passengers in 2023 on 4 runways reaching up to 4,423 m.

Named after **John F. Kennedy** — president of the United States from 1961 to 1963 (1917–1963)

Read more: [Wikipedia ↗](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John%5FF.%5FKennedy%5FInternational%5FAirport) · [Wikidata ↗](https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q8685)

## At a glance

**Full name**
John F. Kennedy International Airport

**Serves**
New York, United States

**City centre**
21 km from New York City

**Opened**
1947

**Operator**
Port Authority of New York and New Jersey

**Passengers**
62.4 million in 2023

**Runways**
4 runways, longest 4,423 m

**Elevation**
13 ft (4 m)

**Map**
[Open in Google Maps ↗](https://www.google.com/maps/search/?api=1&query=40.63940,-73.77930)

**Website**
[jfkairport.com ↗](https://www.jfkairport.com/)

## Where it sits

40.6°N, 73.8°W puts JFK in the northern hemisphere, 4,519 km from the equator and 5,489 km from the North pole.

Of the 661 airports on this site it is the **169th** most northerly, which makes it the 493rd most southerly.

## Straight through the middle

Straight down through the centre of the Earth comes out at 40.6°S, 106.2°E. The nearest airport on this site to that point is Perth (PER) in Australia, still 1,302 km away — most of the planet's antipodes are ocean.

## What’s near it

The closest other airport on this site is **LaGuardia** (LGA), 17 km away in a straight line. 2 airports here sit within 100 km — worth checking which one your ticket actually says.

LGA LaGuardia 17 km [EWR Newark Liberty 33 km](https://orbitflights.app/airports/ewr)

## Distances from JFK

Great circle distance and an estimated time in the air. The longest is Singapore, at 15,341 km.

| To                                                          |     | Distance  | Estimated |
| ----------------------------------------------------------- | --- | --------- | --------- |
| [Toronto](https://orbitflights.app/routes/jfk-to-yyz)       | YYZ | 588 km    | 1h 14m    |
| [Chicago](https://orbitflights.app/routes/jfk-to-ord)       | ORD | 1,188 km  | 1h 59m    |
| [Miami](https://orbitflights.app/routes/jfk-to-mia)         | MIA | 1,757 km  | 2h 41m    |
| [Cancún](https://orbitflights.app/routes/jfk-to-cun)        | CUN | 2,506 km  | 3h 37m    |
| [San Juan](https://orbitflights.app/routes/jfk-to-sju)      | SJU | 2,578 km  | 3h 42m    |
| [Denver](https://orbitflights.app/routes/jfk-to-den)        | DEN | 2,610 km  | 3h 45m    |
| [Seattle](https://orbitflights.app/routes/jfk-to-sea)       | SEA | 3,887 km  | 5h 20m    |
| [Los Angeles](https://orbitflights.app/routes/jfk-to-lax)   | LAX | 3,974 km  | 5h 26m    |
| [San Francisco](https://orbitflights.app/routes/jfk-to-sfo) | SFO | 4,152 km  | 5h 40m    |
| [Reykjavík](https://orbitflights.app/routes/kef-to-jfk)     | KEF | 4,163 km  | 5h 40m    |
| [Dublin](https://orbitflights.app/routes/dub-to-jfk)        | DUB | 5,103 km  | 6h 51m    |
| [Lisbon](https://orbitflights.app/routes/lis-to-jfk)        | LIS | 5,404 km  | 7h 13m    |
| [London](https://orbitflights.app/routes/lhr-to-jfk)        | LHR | 5,540 km  | 7h 23m    |
| [Madrid](https://orbitflights.app/routes/mad-to-jfk)        | MAD | 5,760 km  | 7h 40m    |
| [Paris](https://orbitflights.app/routes/cdg-to-jfk)         | CDG | 5,834 km  | 7h 45m    |
| [Amsterdam](https://orbitflights.app/routes/ams-to-jfk)     | AMS | 5,848 km  | 7h 46m    |
| [Frankfurt](https://orbitflights.app/routes/fra-to-jfk)     | FRA | 6,189 km  | 8h 11m    |
| [Zurich](https://orbitflights.app/routes/zrh-to-jfk)        | ZRH | 6,310 km  | 8h 20m    |
| [Munich](https://orbitflights.app/routes/muc-to-jfk)        | MUC | 6,481 km  | 8h 33m    |
| [Rome](https://orbitflights.app/routes/fco-to-jfk)          | FCO | 6,866 km  | 9h 02m    |
| [Istanbul](https://orbitflights.app/routes/ist-to-jfk)      | IST | 8,026 km  | 10h 28m   |
| [Tokyo](https://orbitflights.app/routes/jfk-to-nrt)         | NRT | 10,830 km | 13h 58m   |
| [Seoul](https://orbitflights.app/routes/jfk-to-icn)         | ICN | 11,089 km | 14h 17m   |
| [Hong Kong](https://orbitflights.app/routes/jfk-to-hkg)     | HKG | 12,970 km | 16h 37m   |
| [Hong Kong](https://orbitflights.app/routes/hkg-to-jfk)     | HKG | 12,970 km | 16h 37m   |
| [Manila](https://orbitflights.app/routes/mnl-to-jfk)        | MNL | 13,696 km | 17h 31m   |
| [Auckland](https://orbitflights.app/routes/akl-to-jfk)      | AKL | 14,215 km | 18h 10m   |
| [Singapore](https://orbitflights.app/routes/sin-to-jfk)     | SIN | 15,341 km | 19h 34m   |

[Distance from JFK to any airport →](https://orbitflights.app/distance?from=JFK&to=SIN) [Map a trip from JFK →](https://orbitflights.app/tools/flight-route-map?r=JFK-SIN)

## Where these facts come from

The profile is looked up, not written from memory: type, runways, elevation and the official website from [OurAirports](https://ourairports.com/data/) (public domain); opening year, namesake, operator and passenger count from [Wikidata](https://www.wikidata.org/) (CC0); the city centre from [GeoNames](https://www.geonames.org/) (CC BY 4.0). Where a source has nothing, the line is left out. Distances, neighbours and the antipode are computed from the coordinates.

What you won’t find: terminal maps, airline lists, shops or live departures. Orbit is a logbook, not a flight tracker, and a page that guessed at those would be worse than one that leaves them out.

[Measure JFK to anywhere →](https://orbitflights.app/distance) [Flights to New York →](https://orbitflights.app/flights-to/new-york)

## Flown through JFK?

Orbit knows all 8,801 airports offline and works out the distance the moment you enter two codes.

[Download now](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.qwertybit.orbit)

---
Markdown copy of https://orbitflights.app/airports/jfk for language models and agents. Site index: https://orbitflights.app/llms.txt
