JFK's Pickup Points Just Moved, Newark's AirTrain Outages Are Back: What Newark, JFK & Staten Island Travelers Need to Know Before Labor Day

The Port Authority's weekly travel advisory, published August 28, 2026, packs in three changes that matter to anyone moving through Newark, JFK, or Staten Island right now: Newark's AirTrain weekday outages have resumed exactly on the schedule the agency laid out back in January, JFK has permanently relocated where for-hire vehicles pick up at two terminals, and lane closures are stacking up on every major bridge and tunnel in the region days before what's shaping up to be a record Labor Day weekend. None of it requires panic. All of it is worth twenty minutes of planning before your next trip.

Newark's AirTrain weekday shutdown is back, right on schedule

We flagged this one coming back in our mid-August look at Newark's AirTrain construction calendar, and the Port Authority's own advisory confirms it: through Friday, Nov. 13, AirTrain service to and from the Airport Train Station is suspended on weekdays from 5 a.m. to 3 p.m. due to AirTrain Newark replacement work, with shuttle buses covering the Airport Train Station, terminals, rental cars, and P4 daily parking in the meantime, according to the Port Authority's Aug. 28 to Sept. 3 travel advisory. AirTrain service between the terminals themselves isn't affected, so the disruption is specifically the rail-to-terminal leg that travelers connecting from NJ Transit or Amtrak at Newark Airport Station rely on. If you're flying out on a weekday morning or early afternoon and planning to train in, budget the extra time for the shuttle-bus transfer.

JFK's $19 billion redevelopment just moved where your ride meets you

The bigger change this week is at JFK. Due to construction tied to the airport's ongoing $19 billion redevelopment, for-hire vehicle pickups at both Terminal 5 and Terminal 7 have been relocated to the Howard Beach Ride App & Car Services Lot, per the same Port Authority advisory and confirmed on JFK's own alerts page. Passengers leaving those terminals now take the free AirTrain to the Howard Beach station to reach their car, rather than being met curbside. Drop-offs for departing passengers are unaffected, and ADA-accessible rideshare pickups remain at the terminal front, but anyone arriving at Terminal 5 or 7 and expecting a curbside pickup needs to know about the extra AirTrain leg before they land, not after they've already texted their driver "I'm outside." The advisory also notes a new roadway configuration at JFK overall: the Van Wyck Expressway now serves terminals 1 and 4 directly, while the JFK Expressway serves terminals 5, 7, and 8.

Newark's own pickup point changed too, and this one is permanent

Newark isn't just dealing with AirTrain outages. The same advisory confirms that Terminal C for-hire vehicle pickups have permanently relocated from the curbside frontage to the Terminal C garage, Level 3, reachable via the pedestrian bridge, with updated signage directing passengers to numbered pickup zones before they order a ride. Terminal C is Newark's busiest terminal, home to United's hub operations, so this is the change most Newark travelers will actually run into. It's a small extra walk, but it's exactly the kind of detail that turns a rideshare pickup into a confused ten minutes of texting back and forth if nobody warned you in advance.

Bridges and tunnels are losing lanes right before the holiday

Layered on top of the airport changes, the advisory lists overnight and daytime lane closures through Labor Day week at the George Washington Bridge, Holland Tunnel, Lincoln Tunnel, and Outerbridge Crossing, the crossings that carry most Staten Island and northern New Jersey traffic into Manhattan. The Lincoln Tunnel is losing a full tube on multiple nights this week, and the Lincoln Tunnel Expressway closes overnight Sept. 1 through Sept. 3 to support Midtown Bus Terminal Replacement construction, meaning New Jersey-bound drivers have to route through local streets via 10th or 11th Avenue during those hours. None of these closures alone is dramatic, but stacked together during the same week that JFK and Newark are both mid-disruption, they add up to a genuinely tighter travel week than usual across the whole region.

Last year's Labor Day set a record. This one is on track to top it

The timing matters because Labor Day travel volume has been climbing every year. The TSA screened a record 10.4 million individuals over the 2025 Labor Day weekend, up roughly 3.3% over the same period in 2024, with Friday, Aug. 29, 2025 alone setting an all-time Friday record at 2,971,217 passengers screened, according to the TSA's own press release. With 2026 tracking at or above 2025's pace for most of the summer, there's little reason to expect this Labor Day weekend, Sept. 4 through Sept. 7, to be any quieter, right as Newark and JFK are both running reduced-capacity pickup arrangements.

How to plan around all of it

• Flying out of JFK Terminal 5 or 7: expect a free AirTrain ride to Howard Beach to meet your car rather than a curbside pickup, and build in an extra 10-15 minutes.
• Flying out of Newark Terminal C: your pickup is now on Level 3 of the terminal garage, not the curb, reachable via the pedestrian bridge.
• Training in on a weekday before 3 p.m.: Newark's AirTrain is on shuttle buses until Nov. 13, so budget accordingly.
• Driving yourself through the GWB, Holland, Lincoln, or Outerbridge crossings this week: check the Port Authority's advisory for the specific overnight closures on your route before Labor Day weekend traffic piles on top of them.

How this maps to KulaRides

KulaRides is a New Jersey-based, owner-operated chauffeur service built around one flagship vehicle, the 2026 Chevrolet Suburban RST, and weeks like this are exactly why we track terminal-level pickup changes as closely as flight status. Our airport transfer service already knows where Terminal 5, 7, and Terminal C pickups actually happen this month, so you're not the one figuring out a new AirTrain leg or a garage elevator with luggage in hand. For companies routing employees through Newark or JFK regularly, our corporate travel service gives you one driver who already adjusts for whichever terminal, tunnel closure, or construction detour is active that day, instead of a different app-based driver guessing along with you every trip. For a full comparison of getting to and from all three area airports, our NYC airport transfer guide breaks down the options, and our earlier EWR construction guide covers the rest of this year's Newark timeline.