As John F. Kennedy International Airport continues to undergo a massive $19 billion redevelopment project, NY1 toured behind the scenes of the ambitious overhaul.

The redevelopment includes the construction of two new terminals: Terminal 1 and Terminal 6, in the southern and northern parts of the airport, respectively.

Rick Cotton, executive director of the Port Authority, highlighted the scale of the project during an interview with NY1 anchor Pat Kiernan.

“Well, I think this is a generational project. I think the New York, New Jersey airports really have fallen into a disgraceful state of being outdated, undersized and simply not appropriate for one of the leading regions—if not the leading region—in the world,” Cotton said. “And what these airports are, are gateways to that region, and we should have airports that the region deserves.”

Cotton also oversaw the recent $8 billion renovation of LaGuardia Airport in northern Queens, but said that the JFK renovation is much larger in scale.

“This is our biggest project to date. In fact, this is the largest airport project in the country,” he said.

Cotton added that most of the project is also privately funded.

“The major terminal projects—and we have two brand new terminals being built, and several of the other terminals have done major renovation—but the terminal expense is borne entirely by our private partners. So we have done all of these terminals as public-private partnerships,” he said.

While the redevelopment has caused congestion and construction-related delays for the 60 million passengers who pass through JFK annually, the Port Authority said it is keeping the airport functional throughout the construction process.

At the helm of that effort is Gina Bigler, the director of construction at JFK, who told Kiernan that she still gets excited about seeing a project come to life.

“When you go to engineering school, you're looking at drawings all day, but there's nothing like coming to the field and seeing it for yourself,” she said.

Bigler said the first phase of Terminal 6 is expected to open in 2026, with five gates operational initially—and then more work will begin.

“Once we open our new facility, we’ll be able to take existing Terminal 7 down and then the flights from Terminal 7, we’ll move here, and then we’ll be able to continue construction,” she said.

The airport will continue to run as smoothly as possible, but Cotton did address travelers’ frustrations.

“We did LaGuardia this way. We’re doing JFK, which is we are keeping the airport functioning throughout the construction process. It’s necessary. I mean, these are gateways to the region. We apologize for inconvenience, but our hope is that people will believe that the end result will justify the inconvenience of the years of construction.”