JFK Flat-Fare Taxi Trips: Monthly Data and Fare Math

In short: From September 2025 to August 2026, 1,106,737 yellow taxi trips ended on TLC's JFK rate code (Rate #2, the $70 Manhattan flat fare). That is about 92,000 a month, from 68,428 in February 2026 to 117,481 in October 2025. Three in four flat-fare trips started at JFK. On those, the median total was $97.44, including surcharges, fees, tolls and card tips. Card riders tipped about 20% of the fare. Another 141,366 trips used the Newark rate.

All counts are ours, from TLC's monthly yellow taxi trip files. The rate code is the one in effect when the meter stopped, as TLC's data dictionary describes it.

The numbers at a glance

Monthly JFK flat-fare and Newark trips

The busiest month was October 2025. The low was February 2026. Newark-rate trips peaked in December 2025 (14,488).

How the flat fare compares with all rate codes

At JFK itself, the flat fare is about half of the taxi business. Of 1,828,649 yellow pickups in zone 132, 834,970 (46%) were on the JFK rate and 852,918 on the standard meter. The rest were mainly Nassau/Westchester (63,287) and negotiated fares (59,390).

Fare components

The fare is $70 on 99.8% of rate-code-2 trips. What changes the total is everything on top. Here is the official list:

So a trip from JFK to Midtown that starts at 5:30 p.m. on a weekday comes to $81.75 before tolls and tip. The same trip at 11 a.m. is $76.75. The step-by-step version for drivers is JFK flat fare: what drivers add.

In the records, the extra field on flat-fare trips from JFK was $0 on 70% of trips and exactly $5.00 on 22%, the size of the flat-fare rush surcharge. The data dictionary describes extra only generally, so treat this as a rough guide to how often rush hour applies.

How riders pay and tip

On credit-card flat-fare trips, 94.8% had a tip, tips totalled 20.2% of the fare, and the median tip was $16.29. For comparison, the card tip rate on all yellow pickups at JFK was 18.9% (zone-132-summary). Cash tips are never recorded, so the true tip rate on cash trips is unknown.

Newark-rate trips

Rate code 3 is the Newark rate: the meter plus a $20.00 Newark surcharge plus tolls both ways. Of the 141,366 trips on this code, 61,397 (43%) ended in TLC's Newark Airport zone. For those, the median fare was $91.60, the median tolls $18.21 and the median total $130.53. The other 79,969 ended elsewhere. The records don't say why, so read the Newark-rate total with care.

What the data can't tell you

• Rate code at the end of the trip is what's recorded. A trip switched between rates mid-way shows only the final one.
• About 67,715 rate-code-2 trips neither started nor ended in the JFK zone. These may be keying mistakes or zone-edge cases, and the records can't show which.
• Overcharges can't be measured. A total above the expected amount can come from tolls, tips or a second leg.
• Data lag. TLC publishes trip files about two months after the month ends and may revise them.

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