As late twentieth century news coverage began to raise serious questions about aircraft safety and airport security, James Kaplan offered his 1996 behind-the-scenes account of John F. Kennedy International Airport transporting the reader "inside" the sprawling J.F.K. to expose the lifeblood of a major metropolitan airport. He presented a panoramic, intimately detailed and highly personal view of the world of flying, and of a fabled airport's inner life, which even seasoned travelers never got to see.

While writing The Airport, Kaplan spoke to a variety of key players among the 44,000 employees hired to work around-the-clock at JFK, including administrators, technicians, crime investigators, pilots and skycaps. He interviewed people who held bizarre posts, such as Kennedys notorious "Birdman" who patroled the runways for "laughing seagulls"; the leader of the "Beagle Brigade" who used beagles to track the illegal entry of unwanted materials; and one of the airport's medical team who had to contend with airport "mules," men and women who smuggled drugs by ingesting large quantities of drug packets into their bodies.

Kapplan also assessed the crucial role deregulation had played thus far in shaping the airline industry, producing lower fares that allowed more people to fly, but in a manner that felt "progressively more inconvenient." He suggested that deregulation may have contributed to dangerous declines in maintenance and safety standards and examined other elements affecting airline safety such as traffic control, weather, runway maintenance, radar and other sensing equipment, pilot and flight attendant training and disaster crews.