NEW YORK (1010 WINS) – Mayor Bloomberg, Governor Paterson and Delta Air Lines CEO Richard Anderson unveiled plans Wednesday for the expansion and improvement of Terminal 4 at John F. Kennedy Airport.

Delta Airlines will spend over $1 billion as part of the redevelopment plan, 1010 WINS senior correspondent Stan Brooks reports.

Delta’s CEO says the city is the place where the company wants to grow long-term.

“New York is the most important aviation market in the world,” Anderson said, “[it is] the most important gateway to the United States.”

The move to expand the international terminal will make things easier for even more people to travel to New York City in the coming years and Mayor Bloomberg says that is good news for the effort to boost tourism.

“We now anticipate receiving more than 47.5 million visitors this year,” Bloomberg said, “and that will put us on track to meet our goal of hosting 50 million visitors by 2012.”

“John F. Kennedy Airport, one of the world’s busiest airports, will continue its transformation into one of the nation’s most state-of the-art airports with the approval of this plan,” Governor Paterson said.

Based on preliminary tourism data, the 47.5 million tourist mark for 2010, has put the city on course to surpass its 2008 record of 47 million visitors, city officials said  Wednesday.

The JFK project, which is expected to create 10,000 jobs over the next three years — will begin this September.

Among the new improvements are nine new gates to allow for the accommodation of larger planes at the airport.