By Philip Newman
LaGuardia airport is so outdated that it ought to be torn down and rebuilt if it is to properly serve the multitudes of passengers never envisioned when it opened in 1939, a Port Authority official told business leaders.
“LaGuardia should not be the gateway for domestic flights into New York City,” said Chris Ward, executive director of the Port Authority of New York & New Jersey, in an address to a Crain’s New York Business breakfast. “It should fundamentally be torn down and rebuilt again.”
But not that the agency has the financial wherewithal to rebuild.
“The capital necessary to rebuild LaGuardia is not there,” Ward said. “But the planning capacity is and we’re working with the consulting industry to reimagine what LaGuardia could, in fact, look like when it gets completely rebuilt.”
Ward said the PA envisions rebuilding LaGuardia gradually and in a way that the airport could keep functioning while work was going on.
That is pretty much what has been going on since the airport opened on Dec. 15, 1939. New terminals and a new control tower along with new shops have been built over the decades with installation of ever-more modern technology.
LaGuardia, despite its problems, is perhaps the most popular metropolitan New York airport because it is the closest to midtown Manhattan.
It was built in the late 1930s for a small fraction of the numbers of air travelers in the early 21st century. It served 23 million passengers in 2009.
It is also one of the nation’s smallest airports with two intersecting runways and nowhere to expand — hemmed in by Flushing Bay on one side and the Grand Central Parkway on the other.
LaGuardia has long been near or at the top of a list of the nation’s major airports with the most flight delays. Perhaps its worst period for runway gridlock was in 2000, when several major airlines began adding new and more frequent flights.
Reach contributing writer Philip Newman by e-mail at timesledgernews@cnglocal.com or phone at 718-260-4536.
