Brooklyn and Queens to JFK or LaGuardia: which airport, which road

In short

• JFK is closer to most of Brooklyn and southern Queens, LaGuardia to western and northern Queens
• The BQE between Atlantic Avenue and the Brooklyn Bridge has carried two lanes each way since August 2021, and the city's repair plan puts construction around 2030
• The BQE, Belt, Van Wyck and Grand Central routes to both airports carry no tolls, while the Rockaway bridges are tolled and a Newark trip pays the Verrazzano toll

Which airport is closer

Both city airports are in Queens. JFK is in Jamaica on Jamaica Bay, and LaGuardia is in East Elmhurst on Flushing Bay, about 10 miles apart. Which is closer depends on where you start. LaGuardia is much closer to Astoria, Long Island City, Sunnyside and Jackson Heights. JFK is closer to Jamaica, Ozone Park, Howard Beach and the Rockaways. Forest Hills, Flushing and Bayside are in between. Our page on Queens pickups by neighborhood shows it area by area, with the flat rate to each airport.

JFK is closer to most of Brooklyn. From south and central Brooklyn, we take the Belt Parkway east along the shore, or Atlantic Avenue to Conduit Boulevard. From Greenpoint and Williamsburg, LaGuardia is a short drive over the Kosciuszko Bridge. LaGuardia's flat rate is less than JFK's from anywhere in the city. But from Bay Ridge or Sheepshead Bay it's often the longer drive. The direct road north is the BQE, and its slow part runs through Downtown Brooklyn and Williamsburg.

Your airline may decide for you. Under a Port Authority rule in place since 1984, LaGuardia nonstop flights can't go more than 1,500 miles, except on Saturdays and to Denver. So a nonstop to the West Coast or Europe leaves from JFK or Newark. At LaGuardia, airlines use Terminals B and C, and Terminal C is Delta's. To see how we meet arrivals at each airport, read JFK terminal pickups and LaGuardia terminal pickups.

The BQE and its narrow section

The BQE (Interstate 278) joins the two boroughs. It starts from the Gowanus Expressway at the Hugh L. Carey Tunnel exit and runs under the Brooklyn Heights Promenade. Then it crosses Newtown Creek into Queens on the Kosciuszko Bridge, and near its north end splits into two branches that join the Grand Central Parkway. It's the usual route to LaGuardia from Brooklyn.

The slow part is between Atlantic Avenue and the Brooklyn Bridge, on the triple cantilever under the Promenade. In August 2021 the city cut it from three lanes to two in each direction. Officials said that could add 20 years to the structure's life. In August 2023 the city began ticketing overweight vehicles there. About 130,000 vehicles a day use this 1.5-mile stretch, more than twice what it was built for. In August 2026 the city announced a $4 billion, 10-year repair plan that keeps two lanes each way, with work expected to start around 2030. So this narrow stretch will slow Brooklyn airport trips for years.

From Carroll Gardens, Cobble Hill or Red Hook to LaGuardia, you hit that stretch right at the start, and it gets very slow in the afternoon. For an afternoon flight from there, leave extra time. From Williamsburg or Greenpoint, the trip to LaGuardia joins the BQE past that point and skips it.

Over Newtown Creek on the Kosciuszko Bridge

The Kosciuszko Bridge carries the BQE over Newtown Creek from Greenpoint to Maspeth. Two cable-stayed bridges have replaced the old 1939 truss bridge. The Queens-bound one opened in April 2017 and the Brooklyn-bound one in August 2019. Together they have nine lanes, and the Brooklyn-bound side has a bike and walking path. From Greenpoint and Williamsburg, it's the direct way to LaGuardia, with the BQE north over the creek and then the Grand Central Parkway east into East Elmhurst.

The roads to JFK

From south and central Brooklyn, the usual route to JFK is the Belt Parkway. It starts at the Gowanus Expressway in Bay Ridge and follows the shore east past Marine Park, Mill Basin and Canarsie to the airport. It's the shortest way on the map, but its traffic is hard to predict. So from Bay Ridge, for an early flight, plan for both the distance and the traffic.

Like other parkways in the state, the Belt is closed to commercial traffic. NYC DOT says trucks and commercial vehicles can't use most parkways in the city. Because of that and the parkways' height limits, our 12-seat Sprinters take the expressways to JFK. Their timing is different from a sedan's.

The Jackie Robinson Parkway cuts across the middle. It runs from where Jamaica, Pennsylvania and Bushwick Avenues meet in East New York to the Kew Gardens Interchange. It's a direct line from Bushwick and Cypress Hills toward the Van Wyck. It was built to disturb as few graves as possible in the cemeteries it crosses. Its curves kept its design speed at 35 miles per hour. It's closed to commercial vehicles too.

From north Brooklyn and most of Queens, we take the Van Wyck Expressway (Interstate 678) south to JFK. Its bottleneck is the Kew Gardens Interchange, where the Van Wyck meets the Grand Central Parkway, the Jackie Robinson Parkway, Queens Boulevard and Union Turnpike. Nearly 600,000 vehicles go through it each day. New York State finished rebuilding the interchange in 2022. On the way back from JFK, it's still where most northbound delays build up, several miles from the terminals.

Tolls on the way, and where they start

The main roads between Brooklyn or Queens and the two airports have no tolls. None of the MTA's nine toll bridges and tunnels is on the BQE, the Kosciuszko Bridge, the Belt Parkway, the Jackie Robinson, the Van Wyck or the Grand Central Parkway east of the Robert F. Kennedy Bridge. So Park Slope to JFK or Astoria to LaGuardia has no tolls.

Tolls start at the edges. From Rockaway Beach, the drive north on Cross Bay Boulevard to JFK crosses the Cross Bay Veterans Memorial Bridge, an MTA toll bridge. The Marine Parkway-Gil Hodges Memorial Bridge, between the Rockaways and Brooklyn, has a toll too. A trip through the Bronx adds the Bronx-Whitestone, Throgs Neck or Robert F. Kennedy Bridge, and a trip through Manhattan by the Hugh L. Carey or Queens-Midtown Tunnel adds another.

Tolls add up on the way to Newark. From Brooklyn, the usual route is over the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge, along the Staten Island Expressway and across the Goethals Bridge. The Verrazzano charges tolls both ways. The Goethals and the Holland Tunnel charge only traffic heading into New York, and the Hugh L. Carey Tunnel charges both ways. So either route costs more in tolls coming back from Newark than going. Airport prices from NYC LUX RIDE include tolls and airport fees, so the route does not change the price.

When the train is easier

For one person with a carry-on, the train can work. The Long Island Rail Road runs a shuttle between Atlantic Terminal in Brooklyn and Jamaica, where AirTrain JFK goes to the terminals. The A train goes to the Howard Beach AirTrain station. AirTrain costs $8.75, charged when you enter or leave at Jamaica or Howard Beach, and rides between terminals are free. LaGuardia has no rail link. The free Q70 LaGuardia Link bus runs to Terminals B and C from the Jackson Heights-Roosevelt Avenue and 74th Street-Broadway subway stations.

A car makes more sense with luggage, children or a group leaving from one address. A Business SUV takes 5 passengers with 3 large and 3 small bags. The 12-seat Sprinter takes 10 large and 2 small bags, door to terminal with no change at Jamaica. Infant, toddler and booster seats are free. Tell us which one you need. For cars and hourly bookings in the borough, see black car service in Brooklyn. Our page on Brooklyn pickups by neighborhood covers the local streets and airport routes from each part of the borough.