Closed terminal at New York’s JFK airport causes delays

A power outage caused by an isolated fire has disrupted flights at one of the busiest airports in the world.

A terminal at New York City’s John F Kennedy International Airport (JFK) was closed on Friday due to an electrical outage that disrupted inbound and outbound flights at one of the world’s busiest airports.

The outage began after an electrical panel failed and caused a small, isolated fire that was immediately extinguished overnight in Terminal 1, the airport said. The terminal, one of five at the airport, serves several international carriers, including Air France and Lufthansa.

The outage forced a JFK-bound Air New Zealand airplane to return to Auckland about eight hours into its trip.

Air New Zealand said “diverting to another US port would have meant the aircraft would remain on the ground for several days, impacting a number of other scheduled services and customers.” The airline said all passengers on the flight have been accommodated on flights leaving Auckland.

The Federal Aviation Administration declined to comment about the disruptions to air travel.

As of 1:30pm (18:30 GMT) on Friday, JFK’s website showed 120 inbound and outbound flights were either delayed or cancelled. About half were international flights.

In all, about 3 percent of flights at the airport had been cancelled on Friday, according to the flight-tracking website Flightaware.com.

“We apologize there are no new updates at the moment,” JFK said in a tweet on Friday afternoon. “Please continue to check with your air carrier for flight status.”

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, JFK’s owner, was working with the terminal’s operator to restore flight operations as quickly as possible, it said.

JFK said it was working to accommodate affected flights using other terminals at the airport.