Even though LGA, EWR, JFK, SWF and TEB are all owned by the Port Authority of NY/NJ and TSA runs security at all of them, some of their individual terminals are operated independently and offer considerably different experiences. Vantage Group runs LGA Terminal B and JFK T7 and will run the forthcoming JFK T1 and T6. A company called JFKIAT runs JFK T4. The Munich Airport Group operates EWR Terminal A. Individual airlines run JFK T5 (B6) and T8 (AA), LGA Terminal C (DL), and EWR Terminal C (UA).

This can have an effect on the security experience. While TSA controls everything starting with the ID checkers, I believe the terminal operator decides how the queues that lead to the ID checkers are set up and how many of the active ID checkers at any given time are assigned to each queue (precheck, CLEAR, priority, general, etc.). A couple years ago I was at LGA Terminal C and was stuck in a nearly hour-long general queue (I was dropping off a UM, and gate passes for UM accompanying adults aren't eligible for precheck). I'm pretty sure that DL had purposely assigned only a single TSA ID checker to the general queue but had assigned two to the CLEAR queue so that CLEAR salespeople could pitch CLEAR signups to folks in the general queue who were desperate to catch their flights (I understand DL gets a commission from CLEAR signups that happen in "their" terminal). I thought that was particularly lousy.