Hawaiian Airlines has moved its JFK operations to Terminal 8 starting today. Alongside Alaska, they are now the newest airline to move operations to this terminal, which has seen many new airlines over the past few years.
According to American Airlines, Terminal 8 now serves 10 Oneworld airlines, and the number could go up to 11 when Hawaiian joins the alliance, which is expected to happen in 2026.
I just so happened to write a post last week going into Alaska’s future at JFK and their relocation to Terminal 8. Now that Hawaiian has joined the party at Terminal 8, let’s talk about what’s new and what to expect.
Hawaiian’s Terminal 8 Operations
As you can see in the above photo, Hawaiian will mostly operate out of the main building, with the exception of gates 31, 34, 46, and 47. This makes sense, as most widebody flights depart out of the main building here at Terminal 8, and those four gates in the satellite are one of the few that can accommodate widebody jets in that building. Alaska, who only uses narrowbody jets, has all of its operations in the satellite building.
Passengers flying First Class on Hawaiian will get access to the Greenwich Lounge. This is one of three joint premium lounges by American Airlines and British Airways, and serves as the business class lounge.
Meanwhile, First Class passengers on Alaska have access to the Admiral’s Club located in the satellite terminal.
Related: Review, Greenwich Lounge JFK (AA/BA Business Class)
How This Move Benefits Us
As I mentioned earlier, we now have 10 Oneworld airlines plus Hawaiian flying through Terminal 8. That’s a lot of airlines, and it’s great for Oneworld passengers to have a seamless experience when connecting here.
Hawaiian isn’t part of Oneworld yet, and I doubt passengers will ever need to connect between Alaska and Hawaiian at JFK. But as Alaska noted in their press release today, this move still “…enhances connectivity with Alaska’s oneworld alliance partners, including American Airlines and British Airways.” Passengers won’t have to go through security again when connecting to and from airlines that both operate out of 8.
This is part of a broader move of Hawaiian and Alaska aligning operations throughout the US. Also announced today was a similar move over in LAX, with Hawaiian moving operations to Terminal 6. This move over on the West Coast provides the same aforementioned benefits.
For JFK though, passengers will get a clear view of the benefits from this move once Alaska fully moves all of its operations to Terminal 8. We still have several months until they fully move over, which is expected to happen at the end of this year or the beginning of 2026. I still think the Admiral’s Club could use a renovation and an extension though, as I discussed last week.
Featured image by American Airlines.
