New JFK Airport Hiring Programs Will Target SE Queens Residents

JAMAICA, QUEENS — Southeast Queens residents, including those with a criminal record, will be matched with jobs in construction and airport operations at JFK Airport under new hiring initiatives announced Tuesday.

Under the $3 million recruiting effort, the Council for Airport Opportunities, a nonprofit trade association based in Jamaica, will spearhead efforts to recruit locals for an estimated 4,000 airport construction jobs and 15,000 future openings at the revamped airport, officials said.

The trade association will also open a Far Rockaway office next year to expand its reach on the Rockaway Peninsula.

A brand new Office for Second Chance Employment will link major airport employers with local social service organizations that aid formerly incarcerated individuals to fill non-aviation jobs and positions in operations and maintenance, customer service, administrative/clerical work, bus and parking operations, landscaping and facility management.

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The job recruiting programs are part of Gov. Andrew Cuomo's $13 billion plan to renovate and expand JFK Airport, which was unveiled in 2018 and would be complete in 2025.

"We have fought to make sure that this development was, at its core, working for and led by the people in our community," U.S. Rep. Gregory Meeks said in a statement.

He and Queens Borough President Melinda Katz chair the JFK Redevelopment Community Advisory Council, which formed in 2018 to get local residents and businesses involved in the sprawling project.

In another initiative announced Tuesday, the international airlines developing a new $7 billion terminal will reserve half of the terminal's food-and-beverage venues for New York City-based restaurants, especially those based in Queens.

"As we move forward with the modernization of JFK Airport, we want to ensure that the historic transformation of the airport will also lift up the surrounding Queens communities," Cuomo said in a statement.