Flights to New York City
Three airports, and the one you pick decides more about your day than the airline does. Only two of them are on a railway.
New York is served by John F. Kennedy (JFK) and LaGuardia (LGA) in Queens and Newark Liberty (EWR) in New Jersey, all run by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. The difference that matters is not distance. It is that JFK and EWR have a rail link and LaGuardia does not — LGA is reached only by road, which means the closest airport to Manhattan is also the one with no way to bypass traffic.
Everything below is the published figure from the authority that sets it, checked on the date at the foot of this page. Fares for the flight itself are not here and never will be; that is what the booking sites are for.
JFK: the AirTrain is a separate fare, and it is not covered by anything
AirTrain JFK runs a Jamaica line, a Howard Beach line and a terminals loop, with an intermediate stop at Federal Circle for the rental-car and hotel shuttles. Trains run every 5–15 minutes and the Port Authority puts terminal-to-terminal at under ten minutes.
The fare is $8.75, and the detail people miss is where it is charged: only on entering or exiting at Jamaica or Howard Beach. Riding between the passenger terminals is free. Children under five ride free.
It sits on top of whatever else you pay, and the MTA is blunt about the consequence — “You can’t use unlimited passes on the AirTrain.” So the published combinations are subway + AirTrain at $11.75, or LIRR + AirTrain at $14.00 off-peak and $16.00 peak. That $14/$16 gap is off-peak versus peak, not Manhattan versus Brooklyn: LIRR CityTicket is $5.25 off-peak and $7.25 peak from either.
Pay with a contactless card, a phone or an OMNY card. There is no ticket window at the AirTrain gates, so arriving with only cash means a detour to a machine at Jamaica or Howard Beach before you can get out.
The classic JFK subway mistake, flagged by the MTA itself
Howard Beach–JFK Airport is on the A, but not on every A. The MTA prints the warning on its own airport guide: “Make sure your train is headed to Far Rockaway. Lefferts Boulevard-bound trains don’t connect to the airport.” Board the wrong branch and you find out somewhere over Ozone Park.
The Jamaica route avoids the problem. Sutphin Blvd–Archer Av–JFK Airport is served by the E, J and Z and adjoins Jamaica LIRR station, and the Port Authority publishes “20-minute trains from Grand Central Terminal or Penn Station to the AirTrain JFK station at Jamaica”. For a couple of dollars more than the subway you replace a long ride with a short one.
What a taxi really costs, which is not the number you have heard
The famous JFK flat fare is $70 between Manhattan and JFK, and it is a floor rather than a price. The Taxi & Limousine Commission adds a 50-cent MTA state surcharge, a $1.00 improvement surcharge, a $5.00 rush-hour surcharge from 4pm to 8pm on weekdays, a state congestion surcharge of $2.50 in a yellow cab or $2.75 in a green one, and a 75-cent congestion-pricing toll for taxis entering Manhattan at or below 60th Street. Tolls and tip are on top of all of it. A weekday-evening cab from JFK to Midtown is therefore around $79–$80 before you have tipped or paid a bridge.
Two things about that flat fare catch people out. It applies only between Manhattan and JFK — going to Brooklyn or Queens you are on the meter with no ceiling at all. And there is no flat fare at LaGuardia: LGA is metered, plus a $5.00 LGA surcharge, which on a jammed Grand Central Parkway is exactly when you would want a cap and do not have one.
A New York yellow cab to Newark is the worst of the three: metered, plus a $20.00 Newark surcharge, plus tolls. It is the transfer where taking the train wins by the widest margin.
Newark: the published taxi zones, and why the train usually beats them
Going the other way, Newark publishes fixed taxi zone fares into Manhattan: $60 to the Battery–W 13th St zone, $65 to W 14th–W 50th, $70 to W 51st–W 96th, $75 to W 97th–W 185th and $80 above that. Then: $5 for East Side destinations, a $10 rush-hour surcharge on weekdays 6–10am and 3–8pm and weekends noon–9pm, $1 per bag including carry-ons, and the airport’s own note that tolls and congestion pricing add $6.75 to $15.75 more depending on when and where.
Add that up for an East Side arrival in the evening peak and the published components alone reach the high nineties. AirTrain Newark to a NJ Transit train into Penn Station is the same journey for a fraction of it.
Where the trains actually put you down
Arriving into Manhattan by rail from JFK or EWR lands you at the Penn Station complex, and the complex has two halves that matter at either end of the day. LIRR and Amtrak board from Moynihan Train Hall at 421 Eighth Avenue, open 5:00am–1:00am. NJ Transit — which is what you are on from Newark — uses Penn Station proper on the Seventh Avenue side.
Between 1:00am and 5:00am the Moynihan hall is shut and Amtrak and LIRR run from Penn Station across Eighth Avenue instead. Subway connections are the A/C/E under Eighth Avenue and the 1/2/3 under Seventh. Heading out to JFK you want the Eighth Avenue side; arriving from Newark you land on the Seventh.
Paying for any of it in 2026
Fares rose on 4 January 2026: the subway and local bus base fare went from $2.90 to $3.00, and the express bus to $7.25. With OMNY, after twelve paid rides in a seven-day period the rest of the week is free, capping subway and local bus at $35.
MetroCard is ending. The MTA states that “As of January 1, 2026, you can no longer buy or refill a MetroCard”; existing cards are accepted into 2026 and the final date has not been announced. Arriving visitors should not go looking for a MetroCard machine — tap a contactless card or a phone.
Where to book
We take no bookings and hold no reservations. The provider you choose handles payment, confirmation, changes and refunds. How that works.
Common questions
Which New York airport should I fly into?
If the fares are close, JFK or Newark, because both have a rail link that lets you ignore traffic. LaGuardia is physically closest to Midtown and has no rail connection at all, so a bad afternoon on the Grand Central Parkway has no way out. Newark is often the quickest of the three to the West Side by train despite being in another state.
How much is the AirTrain at JFK?
$8.75, charged only when you enter or exit at Jamaica or Howard Beach — travel between the terminals is free. It is separate from your subway or LIRR fare and unlimited passes do not cover it. The MTA publishes the combinations as $11.75 with the subway and $14.00 off-peak or $16.00 peak with the LIRR.
Is the $70 JFK taxi flat fare the total?
No. It is the fare before surcharges: 50 cents MTA, $1.00 improvement, $5.00 if you travel 4pm–8pm on a weekday, $2.50–$2.75 state congestion surcharge and a 75-cent congestion toll below 60th Street, with tolls and tip on top. Expect roughly $79–$80 on a weekday evening before tip. It also applies only to Manhattan — to Brooklyn you are metered.
Is there a flat fare from LaGuardia?
No, and that is the catch with the closest airport. LGA is metered plus a $5.00 airport surcharge, so in heavy traffic the fare simply keeps climbing. JFK is the only one of the three with a Manhattan flat fare.
Can I still use a MetroCard?
For now. You have not been able to buy or refill one since 1 January 2026, existing cards are being accepted into 2026, and the MTA has not yet announced the final date. Use a contactless bank card, a phone or an OMNY card instead — and note the AirTrain takes the same.
Which subway goes to JFK?
Either the A to Howard Beach or the E, J or Z to Sutphin Blvd–Archer Av–JFK Airport, then the AirTrain. If you take the A, the MTA warns you to make sure it is a Far Rockaway train — Lefferts Boulevard trains do not reach the airport. The Jamaica route also connects to the LIRR, which is roughly 20 minutes from Penn Station or Grand Central.
Sources
Fares, journey times and operating rules on this page were checked against these sources on 11 September 2026. Authorities change fares and timetables without notice — confirm anything time-critical on the operator’s own site.
- JFK Airport (Port Authority) — AirTrain fares and frequency
- MTA — guide to JFK by subway and LIRR
- MTA — LIRR and Metro-North fares, including CityTicket
- MTA — 2026 fare changes
- NYC Taxi & Limousine Commission — taxi fares and surcharges
- Newark Liberty (Port Authority) — taxi zone fares
- Moynihan Train Hall — hours and connections