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Security Fences to Protect New York Airports

By Dan Schlossberg
ConsumerAffairs.com

June 13, 2007
The agency that operates New York’s four airports is on the fence. Literally.

Eero Saarinen designed the famed TWA Terminal at New York's JFK. It is now part of the new Jet Blue complex.

Construction on the $138 million project started last year but took on new significance in the wake of the recent terrorist threat against a jet fuel depot at John F. Kennedy International, one of the four New York fields operated by the Port Authority.

In addition to JFK, Newark Liberty International and LaGuardia would be encircled by the security fence, along with Teterboro, a general aviation airport in Northern New Jersey.

The barriers will feature motion detectors, thermal image devices, closed-circuit TV, and other sensors – all connected to a Port Authority command post and police station at each airport.

Target date for completion of the virtual barriers, designed by Raytheon, is 2008.

Kennedy, the busiest of the New York airports, handles more than 40 million passengers per year. The airport, located 15 miles from midtown Manhattan, has nine terminals and four runways, which would stretch nine miles if measured end-to-end. Originally known as Idlewild, JFK is relatively compact in size, covering a 4,930-acre tract of Queens, one of New York’s five boroughs.

LaGuardia is even smaller at 680 acres. Located just eight miles from midtown Manhattan, it serves 24 million passengers per year from its patch of real estate, sandwiched between Flushing Bay and the Grand Central Expressway. LaGuardia, named for the one-time mayor of New York, has two runways, both extended 3,000 feet into Rikers Island Channel in 1967. The airport has 72 departure gates, a high number for its size.

Newark Liberty is easier to reach and easier to use. The first commercial airport in the New York area, it opened in 1928 and has expanded many times since. A $3.8 billion facelift is just ending, though the airport still needs improvements to its three runways, two of which are parallel.

Newark has 12 miles of taxiways, 14 miles of roadways, and 20,000 parking spaces (double LaGuardia’s capacity) but all three fall short of demand during peak travel periods, including summer weekends and holidays. Once underutilized, Newark now serves more than 30 million passengers per year.

Teterboro, home of the Aviation Hall of Fame & Museum, features two runways, two office buildings, 4.2 miles of taxiways, and 19 hangars on an 827-acre spread located 12 miles from Manhattan. Its first flight took off in 1919.

Fencing the four airports was a no-brainer in the wake of threats that have left the aviation alert level at orange, the second-highest, for months. Two of the four planes used in the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001 originated in Newark.

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