This past Sunday, March 5th, 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 of New York & New Jersey says the increase is due to an “automatic inflation-based adjustment.”
“This budget makes the most of our efforts to recover the $3 billion of lost revenues that the agency experienced during the first two years of COVID, and emerge as a leaner, more efficient operation,” said Port Authority executive director Rick Cotton in the statement according to NBC.
“Our 2023 budget acknowledges the difficult economic environment that we all face, while providing the necessary resources to maintain, improve and grow our assets responsibly to the benefit of the entire region,” Cotton added.
This is the the second time in the past two years the AirTrain’s fare has increased. It rose from $7.75 to $8 back in January 2022, reported amNY.
Unfortunately, the AirTrain doesn’t currently allow for riders to pay using OMNY, and being there’s no transfer process for subway riders, a trip on the AirTrain via subway will now cost $11.
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.
And though travel between each terminal is free, the $11 fee to begin the journey on the subway before transferring to the AirTrain still stands.
“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,” said Danny Pearlstein, spokesperson for the Riders Alliance, a straphanger advocacy group, according to amNY.
Pearlstein went on to add, “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.”