Our Lady of the Skies Chapel at John F. Kennedy International Airport is a Catholic chapel located at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City, United States.
The chapel was founded in 1955 by World War II veteran Bob O’Brien, who promised the Virgin Mary the creation of a shrine if he could safely return home. The original chapel was dismantled to make room for a terminal expansion for British Airways. The current chapel was rebuilt at a cost of $1 million and contains a 16-foot statue of the Virgin Mary in addition to a white marble altar and stained windows. The rebuilt chapel is estimated to service thousands of people daily and is a popular wedding destination. [1]
The chapel is one of the few places of worship in an airport designed for a specific faith. Most other airports in the United States that have chapels or places of worship are interfaith. [2]
Our Lady of the Skies Chapel at John F. Kennedy International Airport is incorporated into the second floor of Terminal 4, near the flight arrivals board. [3] [4]
In 1979, Deyan Brashich, a patron of the airport, sued the airport's operator Port Authority of New York and New Jersey because of the existence of the chapel. He argued that the existence of the chapel violated his First Amendment right to freedom of religion. The United States District Court for the Southern District of New York ultimately ruled in favor of the Port Authority, noting that the chapel only accommodated religious individuals and that it did not threaten Brashich's right to worship freely. [5] [6]
During the case of Hawley v. the City of Cleveland, the United States Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals referenced the precedent set by Brashich v. Port Authority of New York when they ruled that a chapel located in a Cleveland airport was not in violation of the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment. [7]
The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey is a joint venture between the U.S. states of New York and New Jersey, established in 1921 through an interstate compact authorized by the United States Congress. The Port Authority oversees much of the regional transportation infrastructure, including bridges, tunnels, airports, and seaports, within the geographical jurisdiction of the Port of New York and New Jersey. This 1,500-square-mile (3,900 km2) port district is generally encompassed within a 25-mile (40 km) radius of the Statue of Liberty National Monument. The Port Authority is headquartered at 4 World Trade Center.
John F. Kennedy International Airport is an international airport in New York City. The airport is the busiest international air passenger gateway into North America, the 20th-busiest airport in the world, the sixth-busiest airport in the United States, and the busiest airport in the New York airport system, having handled over 62.5 million passengers in 2019. More than ninety airlines operate from the airport, with nonstop or direct flights to destinations in all six inhabited continents.
Henry E. Rohlsen Airport is a public airport located six miles (10 km) southwest of Christiansted on the island of St. Croix in the United States Virgin Islands. The airport is named after Henry E. Rohlsen, a St. Croix native who was one of the Tuskegee Airmen during World War II.
Rafael Hernández International Airport is a joint civil-military airport located in Aguadilla, Puerto Rico. It is named after the Puerto Rican composer Rafael Hernández Marín. It is Puerto Rico's second largest international airport in terms of passenger movement. It is located in Porta del Sol tourist region, in Puerto Rico's west coast. It is also home to Coast Guard Air Station Borinquen and to the Caribbean Branch of the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Air and Marine Operations.
General Edward Lawrence Logan International Airport, also known as Logan International Airport and commonly as Boston Logan, Logan Airport or simply Logan, is an international airport that is located mostly in East Boston and partially in Winthrop, Massachusetts, United States. It opened in 1923, covers 2,384 acres (965 ha), has six runways and four passenger terminals, and employs an estimated 16,000 people. It is the largest airport in both the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and the New England region in terms of passenger volume and cargo handling, the 16th-busiest airport in the United States, as well as the busiest airport in the Northeast outside the New York metropolitan area. The airport saw 42,522,411 passengers in 2019, the most in its history. It is named after General Edward Lawrence Logan, a 20th-century war hero native to Boston.
Newark Liberty International Airport, originally Newark Metropolitan Airport and later Newark International Airport, is an international airport straddling the boundary between the cities of Newark in Essex County and Elizabeth in Union County, New Jersey. The airport is currently owned jointly by the cities of Elizabeth and Newark and leased to and operated by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.
LaGuardia Airport is a civil airport in East Elmhurst, Queens, New York City. Covering 680 acres (280 ha) in its present form, the facility was established in 1929 and began operating as public airport in 1939. It is named after former New York City Mayor Fiorello La Guardia, and among pilots is sometimes nicknamed "USS LaGuardia" in reference to its short runways surrounded by Flushing Bay, thus giving the feel of landing on an aircraft carrier.
Cleveland Hopkins International Airport is an international airport in Cleveland, Ohio, United States. It is the primary airport serving Greater Cleveland and Northeast Ohio, the largest and busiest airport in the state, and the 43rd busiest airport in the U.S. by passenger numbers. Located in Cleveland's Hopkins neighborhood 9 miles (14 km) southwest of Downtown Cleveland, it is adjacent to the Glenn Research Center, one of NASA's ten major field centers.
AirTrain JFK is an 8.1-mile-long (13 km) elevated people mover system and airport rail link serving John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City. The driverless system operates 24/7 and consists of three lines and ten stations within the New York City borough of Queens. It connects the airport's terminals with the New York City Subway in Howard Beach, Queens, and with the Long Island Rail Road and the subway in Jamaica, Queens. Bombardier Transportation operates AirTrain JFK under contract to the airport's operator, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.
Cyril E. King Airport is a public airport located two miles (3 km) west of the central business district of Charlotte Amalie on the island of St. Thomas in the United States Virgin Islands. It is currently the busiest airport in the United States Virgin Islands, and one of the busiest in the eastern Caribbean, servicing 1,403,000 passengers from July 2015 through June 2016. The airport also serves the island of St. John and is additionally often used by those travelling to the nearby British Virgin Islands.
An airport rail link is a service providing passenger rail transport from an airport to a nearby city by mainline or commuter trains, rapid transit, people mover, or light rail. Direct links operate straight to the airport terminal, while other systems require an intermediate use of people mover or shuttle bus.
The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey Police Department, or Port Authority Police Department (PAPD), is a law enforcement agency in New York and New Jersey, the duties of which are to protect and to enforce state and city laws at all the facilities, owned or operated by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey (PANYNJ), the bi-state agency running airports, seaports, and many bridges and tunnels within the Port of New York and New Jersey. Additionally, the PAPD is responsible for other PANYNJ properties including three bus terminals, the World Trade Center in Lower Manhattan, and the PATH train system. The PAPD is the largest transit-related police force in the United States.
Austin Joseph Tobin was an American businessman who served as the executive director of the Port of New York Authority, the precursor to the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, from 1942 until 1972.
Terminal 3, also known by the trademarked name Worldport, was an airport terminal built by Pan American World Airways in 1960 at John F. Kennedy International Airport in Queens, New York, United States. It operated from May 24, 1960 to May 24, 2013, and was demolished in 2013–2014.
The Sundrome, later TWA Domestic Terminal and Terminal 6, was one of several terminals at John F. Kennedy International Airport. It was designed by I. M. Pei & Partners. Opened in 1969, it was initially used by National Airlines. It had been occupied at various times by Trans World Airlines, Pan American World Airways, United Airlines, ATA Airlines, Pan American Airways (1996-1998), Carnival Airlines, Vanguard Airlines, and America West Airlines. Most recently, from 1998 to 2008, Terminal 6 was the home of JetBlue. It became vacant on October 22, 2008, when JetBlue moved to Terminal 5, and finally demolished in 2011.
Vantage Airport Group is an airport management, development and investment company with 10 airports worldwide.
NYC Express Bus, formerly known as NYC Airporter, is an airport transfer service. NYC Express bus service operates express motor coaches between New York metropolitan area airports and Manhattan owned by Golden Touch Transportation of NY, Inc. It is the only permitted official operator of express airport bus service for the New York City Department of Transportation and Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.
The New York metropolitan area has the busiest airport system in the United States and the second busiest in the world after London. It is also the most frequently used port of entry and departure for international flights. In 2011, more than 104 million passengers used the airports under the auspices of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey (PANYNJ). The number increased to 117 million in 2014.
Deyan Ranko Brashich was a Serbian-American attorney, author, and columnist.
BAA USA, also referred to as just BAA in the United States, was an American airports subsidiary owned by the British airports operator BAA. At its peak, BAA USA owned AirMall as well as the airside shopping outlets and management contracts for several American airports. It was set up in 1992 and operated each airport under a subsidiary company with BAA affixed to the name of the city. It was bought out by Prospect Capital Corporation in 2010 who renamed it AirMall USA as part of a BAA asset stripping policy.