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More than 30 years ago, Phyllis Palionis, a Woodhaven resident since 1958, boarded a plane bound for Rome from John F. Kennedy International Airport. It was her first flight from JFK Airport, a place where she would stand on a platform and watch the planes fly above Queens.

Since then, millions of people have stood on the same platform, and to thank them for choosing JFK Airport as their means of travel, the Port Authority will offer free AirTrain rides Friday July, 25. Riding AirTrain normally costs $5 per trip.

From midnight to midnight, rides are available for anyone who is flying in or out, said Pasquale DiFulco, spokesman for the Port Authority. Since its opening at the end of 2003, the number of paying customers riding AirTrain increased from 2.6 million to more than 4.4 million in 2007.

“We are seeing more than 15,000 paid riders per day,” DiFulco said, adding that AirTrain eases congestion around the airport by taking cars off the road.

As the airport’s 60th anniversary approaches, offering free rides is a natural way to acknowledge customers, he said.

Creating more than 150,000 jobs and $21 billion in revenue, the airport has an important role in the Queens community. For Palionis, its accessibility is an additional role.

“The beautiful part about it is that you don’t get lost in Kennedy,” she said. “The nice part about it is that it is so close.”

The first passenger at JFK Airport arrived from Chile in 1948, when it was known as New York International Airport. A renaming after occurred in 1963 after slain president John F. Kennedy. For many years the airport was commonly known as Idlewild.

The free AirTrain rides are open to passengers of JFK Airport and first-time riders are also welcomed.

“We don’t want it to be an amusement park ride but certainly people in the Queens community who have never used it before are welcome,” DiFulco said.