(Reuters) – New York City’s John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK) will reopen its Terminal 1 for limited operations on Saturday, after it was closed on Friday due to a power outage.
“Based on the completion of repairs and testing, we anticipate that Terminal 1 will begin limited operations on Saturday,” JFK owner Port Authority of New York and New Jersey said in a statement on Friday. told Reuters in a statement.
Terminal 1 accounts for 5% of all scheduled passenger flights at JFK, today 64 scheduled Terminal 1 arrivals and departures, 16 The airport has been cancelled, the Port Authority said.
The power outage disrupted incoming and outgoing flights at one of the world’s busiest airports after a switchboard malfunctioned and sparked an isolated small fire that was immediately extinguished overnight Thursday.
The terminal serves several international airlines, including Air France and Lufthansa.
Among other disrupted flights, the disruption forced an Air New Zealand flight to JFK to return to Auckland after a flight of about 8 hours, returning to its point of departure for about 16 Hours after flight commenced.
Air New Zealand said the “transfer to another US port meant the aircraft would remain on the ground for several days, affecting many other scheduled flights and customers.” Passengers have all been booked on flights out of Auckland.
The FAA declined to comment on the disruption to air travel.
As of 1:16 Friday afternoon, JFK’s website shows 120 inbound and outbound flights delayed or canceled at the airport. About half are international flights.
In total, airports canceled about 3% of flights Friday, according to flight-tracking website Flightaware.com.
“We are sorry there are no new updates at this time. Please continue to check with your airline on flight status,” Kennedy tweeted Friday afternoon.
The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which owns JFK, is working with the operator of the terminal to resume flight operations as soon as possible.
JFK said it was working to have affected flights use some of the airport’s other four terminals.
