Air Andrew

At age 60, Queens boy Andrew Cuomo exaggerates somewhat in saying that “JFK Airport has been outdated all my life.” Actually, his December 1957 birth was the very month that the first of the airport’s terminals opened, with six more airline-specific terminals coming by 1962.

It was the Jet Age, and long-gone names like Eastern Airlines and Pan American and TWA all had their fancy showcase facilities. The 10 separate terminals were architecturally dynamic and functionally inefficient, connected by a maze of roadways leading to the crammed Van Wyck, which only in a theoretical sense could be called an “expressway.”

That was always a major problem with JFK, and why young Andrew hated having to pick up anyone there.

So Gov. Cuomo’s do-over for JFK, first previewed in early 2017 and unveiled Thursday, is most welcome.

The $13 billion investment — $12 billion of that in private capital — will get rid of the failed separate terminals, uniting the airport with much simpler north and south wings, containing more gates, able to handle larger aircraft. The spaghetti bowl of roads dreaded by drivers like Cuomo will be gone, replaced by a rational traffic pattern.

But for New York to finally have the international gateway it needs and deserves, an airport to compete with other world cities, it needs a direct rail link to Manhattan. Last year, Cuomo called for a one-seat ride that all our competitors in Europe and Asia have, but his final plan is silent on it. To make JFK first class, build the one-seat ride.