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Despite war, SARS and the blue economy, John F. Kennedy International Airport saw a substantial increase in passenger traffic during the first part of the year, beating growth at almost every major airport in the nation.
Passenger traffic at the Jamaica, Queens, airport has soared by 6.6% this year to 11.8 million, compared to the same period the year before, according to the Port Authority of New York & New Jersey. The gain at JFK through May, the latest time period for which information is available, topped LaGuardia Airport's 1% increase to 8.69 million. Traffic at Newark Liberty International Airport declined 3.2% to 11.1 million. Nationally, only Chicago's O'Hare International Airport matched JFK's growth.
"The traffic levels at Kennedy are back up, more than at most other airports across the country," says Kurt Forsgren, a director at ratings agency Standard & Poor's.
JFK owes much to the rising popularity of discount carrier JetBlue Airways Corp., as well as to returns from a decade's worth of renovation and expansion projects.
Queens-based JetBlue brought 5.9 million passengers to JFK during the 12...