The New Terminal One at JFK CEO, Jennifer Aument at the CAPA CEO Roundtable, India 2025

Transcript

Jennifer Aument:It's a really big year for The New Terminal One. We are seeing our customer vision come to life out there as we start to see our retail partners, our food and beverage. We've got our premier airline lounge construction underway. So it's an exciting year for us as we move toward implementation of the build-out of the building. To ORAT, which is the testing of the systems, and then to opening next summer. So it's here. Well, we know that both international carriers and their customers have unique needs and priorities. So for the first time in the United States, we are building a terminal that has been designed and will be operated exclusively for international carriers and their international customers. It's exciting and the first time we've seen a facility like this here in the United States. So we've done significant research at NTO around the unique needs of international customers to identify those pinch points that international customers struggle with as they maneuver through airports, particularly airports in the United States. So a few areas of focus for us. One is signage. When you arrive at the new Terminal 1, you will be greeted in your native language in the customs hall with instructions in your native language. So a wonderful introduction as a gateway to The United States. So that's one of those examples. The others is touchless. We have biometric from curb to gate. So an easy, convenient walkthrough for customers as they're moving toward their flight. Those are just 2 examples. As we've done our research to identify where are there challenging areas, these are areas that we can make step changes in. The area that I'm most proud of is the improvements that we've made related to TSA security and Customs and Border Protection. We have wonderful partners in the federal government who have agreed to operate with the same customer standards, vision, and training as everyone else in the terminal. And so what international customers can expect when they come to our terminal is a reduction in wait times at areas like customs and a friendly welcome to the United States. It's a very exciting time because we've just started the process of handing over lounge space to our airline partners. So not only is our vision coming to life at the new Terminal One, but our partners' customer vision is coming to life in the form of new world-class lounges. I think we are going to see a brand new standard. When I look at my partners like Korean Air, Air France, Turkish, it's amazing what they're designing and the customer experience that's coming to life in these new— they're really flagship lounges here in the United States. We're moving very quickly. We have more than 2,300 colleagues out on site right now preparing and constructing and preparing for the opening next summer. So our team is excited. We're ready to go. And I've— what I've been really pleased with is that our airline partners, that many of whom we've met here this week at IATA, are as excited as we are because they know that this is going to be a first-of-its-kind experience in the US that is certainly unmatched at the JFK campus. And unmatched anywhere in the, in the US airport infrastructure.

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