JFK’s Terminal 1 still closed due to electrical issues after a ‘small’ fire: Port Authority

JFK Airport’s Terminal 1 remained closed Friday afternoon following a “small isolated fire” that took place overnight on Wednesday, according to officials from New York and New Jersey’s Port Authority, which oversees the airport. But they anticipated that limited operations could resume on Saturday.

Approximately 260 flights were canceled or delayed at JFK as of Friday afternoon, according to Flight Aware, which tracks flights worldwide.

Port Authority officials said that Terminal 1 accounted for a small portion — 5% — of JFK's scheduled passenger flights. "Of today’s 64 scheduled Terminal 1 arrivals and departures, 13 will operate at other JFK terminals, 12 will operate at other local airports, and 39 have been canceled," they wrote in a statement to Gothamist.

Authorities urged travelers to check their flight status before heading to the airport and to double-check their assigned terminal.

The Port Authority first acknowledged issues at JFK’s Terminal 1 on Thursday morning when it described a “power outage” on Twitter.

Later that afternoon, Port Authority officials clarified that the power outage meant that flights couldn’t arrive or depart from the terminal. They added that the outage began after an “electrical panel failure, which also caused a small isolated fire,” and said the fire was put out immediately.

A spokesperson for the FDNY didn’t immediately return a request for comment on the fire.

Nearly three dozen flights were canceled on Thursday and more than 200 were delayed at JFK, according to Flight Aware.

Other planes had to reroute away from JFK while in the air. An Egyptair flight from Cairo ended up in Virginia, while an Ethiopian Airlines flight from Frankfurt landed in Boston, the New York Times reported. One flight from Auckland, New Zealand turned around mid-flight and returned to its point of origin after more than 16 hours in the air, the New Zealand Herald reported.

Some air travelers took to social media to describe confusion and frustration at disruptions in their travel plans.

One Twitter user said he was alerted by email that his flight to France had been canceled.

JFK Airport has seized headlines in recent weeks for two back-to-back hair-raising incidents; a Delta Jet nearly hit an American Airlines plane during takeoff on Jan. 13 and five days later a JetBlue plane hit a parked plane. No one was injured in either incident.

Elizabeth Shwe contributed reporting.