The New Terminal One at JFK, Chief Revenue Officer, Carl Schultz at the CAPA Airline Leader Summit - Airlines in Transition 2024

Transcript

Carl Schultz:So we are building a 23-gate international, all-international wide-body terminal at JFK. And so that is going to be replacing the existing facility, which is a 10-gate facility. So it's building that additional capacity into the New York market. We've got our first 14 gates, which is our Phase A of the project. That's going to be opening June 2026. And really, it's, it's part of a larger redevelopment of JFK. So looking at all aspects of the customer journey, of the airline journey, and really making sure bringing it to the new front, the new, basically the new normal. So one of the things that we're really focused on is building a unique experience for the international passenger coming in. So really tailor-made for that journey and one that is going to be elevating that experience basically with the goal of being a Skytrax top 5 airport terminal. So I think it's a long time coming, especially for the New York market. So you've seen in general, and we're just part of a $19 billion dollar redevelopment at JFK. So I like to say, you know, I'm partial. I think we're the most important element of that. But we're just part of this overall redevelopment of JFK. And you've seen that in the New York area where airports that were historically frowned upon, like LaGuardia and things, have gone over this transformation in the New York area. And now it's really JFK's time and it's really coming together in terms of you've got this brand new building, but the technology is at such a point where we can factor in things like biometrics, LiDAR, and all these other technologies that weren't really to the forefront a couple years ago are now more commonplace, and we're able to kind of usher that into the new part of the future in terms of hopefully being able to do things like biometric curb-to-gate. All those different things that maybe weren't on the scope a couple years ago are now at the forefront, and we're wanting to leverage that technology, not only things that are possible in 2026, but also making sure that we are proving that now. So we're working on things like with existing Terminal 1 where we're proving some of those technologies so that it's ready for primetime as soon as we open June 2026. Now, June 2026 is just a few— that's right as the World Cup is coming to the United States. In fact, the world final or the final of the World Cup is going to be in New Jersey, right across the river in July of 2026. So the pressure is on for us and we are rising to the occasion. Like I said, we are on track and on budget for that opening and we can't wait to welcome our airline passengers into the new facility and really show them what's possible at JFK. Yeah, so we're very fortunate that we had a very good group of carriers come in, as we like to call our anchor tenants. And so we've got folks like Air France, KLM, Etihad, LOT Polish, Korean was then joined on, and then now EVA has joined us as well. So we're in about final commercial talks or have signed on about 30% of our expected opening day capacity. So there's still a lot more airlines that we want to engage with. And I think this year is going to be critical because June 2026 is going to be here before any of us know it. And so there's a lot of technology things that we are looking to do, which are gonna require a lot of buy-in and work on the back end for these airlines. So it's vital to us to start working with those folks now. And we anticipate that when everything's said and done, we'll probably have about 20 to 30 different carriers that are part of the new Terminal One. And that is really gonna be interesting because there's no large domestic carriers. It's all international and it's all international carriers. So it's gonna be really tailor-made for that experience. Carl, And that's going to require a little bit more work. And I think that it's going to require a lot of buy-in from the airlines, but it's going to result in a great customer experience for everybody. Well, I think there's, there's a couple of different doors that are going to be opened by this. One is, you know, we want to solve some of the operational issues that are currently impacting. So, you know, there's, there's nothing more frustrating for a passenger to arrive at an airport and have to wait for a gate to open up. So, you know, there are those gate constraints. You know, there are runway constraints, but there are more so gate constraints at JFK. So we're hoping to alleviate that. The existing facility is 10 gates. We're opening to start with 14, and then we're going to be adding additional for net 9 for JFK. So that's going to help at least on the operational side control a little of the bottlenecks and hopefully result in a better customer experience. But then also things like burning jet fuel, having employees running around—those are all things that we hope to solve with the new facility. And then when in terms of other bottlenecks, you know, that's really where we want to leverage the technology. So not only from the operational side, we want to allow customers to control their journey from the curbside all the way to the gate. And so if you're comfortable doing that all remotely or biometrics, we want to be able to allow you to do that. That way you're not hung up at these areas where you really don't have any value added to your day, you know, in terms of waiting for someone to manually ID check or someone to manually put your bag and put it on the carousel and things like that. So we want to try to take those pain points away from not only the passengers but the airline to hopefully result in folks, you know, coming through a more seamless process, getting to their gate faster. Hopefully enjoying our shopping and dining, you know, with more time. And those are all things that we hope to do with the new facility. Well, I think now is a great time to engage us on that so we can tell you what's possible and not just, you know, prescribe to you what you'll see in the next couple of years. But we're really working to find people to really partner with us now because as we go through the next 2 years, this is when we're going to start to do RFPs. This is when we're going to start to really contract some of those services. And so you have the opportunity to really have You know, your path decided by us together, as opposed to coming down the line 2 or 3 years from now and just accepting what's there. And so we really want to work with people on what's possible and kind of factor that into the operation as much as possible. And then with the carriers that are currently at JFK and operating at different terminals, you know, we not only can support your growth for the next couple of years when we open in 2026, but beyond that. So, you know, when you look at JFK, it's such an important market for so many airlines. Being able to offer, you know, offer not only servicing their current needs, but then their future needs, I think is something that no other terminal can really offer because of that extra capacity that we're building in the facility. Thank you.

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