Just seven months after the price of JFK and Newark’s AirTrain fare increased 25 cents, causing airport commuters to shell out a $8.25 in order to ride, the Port Authority announced the fare will increase another 25 cents once again, hiking the cost up to $8.50.
The increase is due to an “automatic inflation-based adjustment.”
This will be the third time in the past two years the AirTrain’s fare has increased–it rose from $7.75 to $8 back in January 2022, and from $8 to $8.25 just this past March.
Of course, not everyone agrees with the fare increase–or the fare in general.
Last March, Danny Pearlstein, a spokesperson for the Riders Alliance, a straphanger advocacy group, stated, “Governor Hochul should encourage air travelers to ride transit to JFK Airport. A fare hike, whether on the subway or AirTrain, does just the opposite. The AirTrain fare should be cut or eliminated,” according to amNY.
“Just the fact that there’s an AirTrain fare at all, and no free transfer to the bus, subway, or LIRR — and the state is undertaking a multibillion-dollar highway expansion cutting through Jamaica to JFK — displays virtually everything inequitable and inefficient about public transit in New York,” Pearlstein added.
The good news is that the AirTrain just recently began allowing for riders to pay using OMNY. “We are making it easier than ever for travelers to take the train to JFK, and for visitors to our great city to use one of its most essential services — the MTA,” Governor Kathy Hochul had said in a press release.
The AirTrain carries passengers from NYC’s major transit stops to JFK and Newark’s terminals. JFK’s AirTrain is over eight miles long and has two lines which connect to Jamaica’s LIRR station and Howard Beach’s subway station.
Newark’s AirTrain is three miles long, and carries passengers between the airport’s terminals and the NJ Transit station.
The fare hike will go into effect March 3, 2024.