New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport isn’t exactly the poster child for on-time departures and things may get worse before they get better for travelers using the airport this spring.

Starting Monday, JFK’s busiest runway will close for four months for reconstruction.

The $376 million project for Runway 13-31, also known as the Bay Runway, will widen it from 150 to 200 feet and add taxiways, all in an effort to ease traffic congestion at the airport.

“The improvements are expected to reduce flight delays overall by an estimated 10,500 hours per year,” the office of New York Gov. David Paterson said.

It also tried to alleviate passenger worries about potential bottlenecks.

“Airlines are adjusting schedules and operations to mitigate delays, and the airport’s three remaining runways will be utilized to their full capabilities during the Bay Runway’s closure.”

Officials are reducing the number of arrivals and departures at the airport from about 1,300 a day to 1,050, said John Kelly, a spokesman for The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which operates JFK.

“The aim is to have [the construction] be invisible to the traveler,” Kelly said.

Last year, JFK was ranked 22nd out of 31 major U.S. airports in on-time departures, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Bureau of Transportation Statistics. About one-fifth of flights did not take off on time, the report said.

With about 48 million travelers a year passing through its terminals, JFK is the 13th busiest airport in the world in terms of passenger traffic, according to Airports Council International.

(Source:  http://www.cnn.com/)