The expansion, approved on Thursday by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey's Board of Commissioners, will add an additional 145,000 square feet at JFK's Terminal 5, which has 635,000 square feet at present. JetBlue said the new facility will be called T5i.

New York-based JetBlue is No. 1 in passenger share at JFK, based on the latest Port Authority figures. Its international destinations include Barbados, Jamaica, Mexico and the Dominican Republic.

The expansion will add a federal inspection site to handle customs and immigration checks as well as gates for international arrivals. JetBlue could break ground this summer and plans to complete construction in early 2015, it said.

(Reporting by Sagarika Jaisinghani in Bangalore and Karen Jacobs; Editing by Viraj Nair and John Wallace)

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