Runway reconstruction has JFK preparing for summer delays

New York

IN mid-March, travellers trying to fly out of John F Kennedy International Airport (JFK) got a bitter taste of the misery that can prevail when a major hub finds itself with only one working runway. The start of a year-long rebuilding effort on one of the airport's four main runways left passengers stewing aboard planes that waited up to two hours to take off.

That sort of predicament is exactly what officials of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey - which operates JFK - will be trying to avoid for the next three months. They admit, though, that their hopes for a relatively smooth summer at the airport in Queens hinge on the two words that often rule the airline industry: "weather permitting". They contend that JFK, one of the busiest and most delay-plagued airports in the world, can operate at almost-full speed with just three of its runways in use.