John F. Kennedy International Airport opened on July 1, 1948, as New York International Airport, commonly known as Idlewild, after the golf course whose land it consumed in Queens. The opening ceremony drew an estimated 215,000 spectators and was attended by President Harry S. Truman. Commercial service followed days later when a Peruvian International Airlines flight arrived from Santiago, Chile on July 9. By 1954, Idlewild carried more international air traffic than any airport in the world. The airport entered the jet age on October 26, 1958, when Pan American Airways launched the first US jet service, a Boeing 707 to Paris, in under eight hours. Following President Kennedy's assassination, the airport was renamed in his honor in December 1963.

Situated 16 miles southeast of Midtown Manhattan in the borough of Queens, JFK is the primary long-haul gateway for the New York metropolitan area and the busiest airport in the United States for international passengers. In 2024, it handled a record 63.3 million passengers. More than 90 airlines operate from the airport to over 200 destinations worldwide, with Delta Air Lines and American Airlines as its dominant hub carriers and JetBlue as its leading focus-city carrier. The route between JFK and London Heathrow ranks among the world's busiest international air corridors.

The airport's layout, with terminals arranged in a loop around a central road, parking facilities, and a power plant, was unusual at the time of construction, with individual airlines encouraged to build their own dedicated terminals. That philosophy produced the airport's most celebrated structure: the TWA Flight Center, designed by Finnish-American architect Eero Saarinen and completed in 1962. Its soaring concrete shell roof, shaped like a bird in flight, became a landmark of mid-century modernism. Designated a New York City landmark in 1994, it was restored and reopened as the TWA Hotel in 2019. A $19 billion overhaul now underway is adding new terminals and reshaping the airport's physical plan for the next generation of travel.