New York’s JFK airport reopened Runway 13R-31L, after being closed for nearly three months for a US$376 million refurbishing replacing the existing tarmac with a new, wider concrete runway. Airport officials hailed the project a success, pointing out that pessimists’ predictions that leaving JFK to operate on only three runways would result in chaos, failed to materialise. About 24 per cent of departing flights at the airport were delayed in March, up from 16 per cent a year earlier, according to data from the federal Bureau of Transportation Statistics. But in April, only 16 per cent of flights were delayed, down from 21 per cent a year ago.