Firms Submit Visions For New Hub
The Port Authority’s exploration of a partnership with private firms to replace LaGuardia Airport’s nearly half-centuryold main terminal has attracted significant interest, with 15 firms submitting responses, it was announced.
The applications represent a range of airport and aviation, engineering and design, and finance firms, all of which submitted concepts by the Jan. 31 deadline in response to the Port Authority’s request for information issued on Dec. 19, 2011.
According to the Port Authority, the firms outlined their proposed concepts and plans to design, construct, operate, maintain and finance a new $3.6 billion, 1.3 million-square-foot Central Terminal Building to replace the obsolete structure, which opened in 1964. Port Authority officials will review the submissions and study the alternative plans, which could lead to the release of a formal request for proposal.
The 15 respondents include investors, entities specializing in airport construction and development, facility operations and management firms and concession developers. About half of the respondents have an international presence.
The Port Authority has a track record of partnering with the private sector at its aviation facilities, and has recently used this approach for other significant terminal modernization projects. The bistate agency partnered with Delta Air Lines in 2010 on a $1.2 billion expansion of Terminal 4 at John F. Kennedy International Airport that will replace Terminal 3, which is scheduled to be demolished in 2013.
Terminal 4, one of the cornerstones in JFK’s Central Terminal Area, was created through a publicprivate partnership between the Port Authority and the JFK International Air Terminal consortium. When the terminal opened in 2001, it represented the largest public-private partnership of its kind at a North American airport.
The Port Authority also is preparing a similar public-private partnership process to replace the outdated Terminal A at Newark Liberty International Airport and is seeking to issue a similar request for information from potential partners for that project by year’s end.
“Our agency is facing challenging economic times which demand innovative solutions, and private-public partnerships are possible arrangements the Port Authority must seriously explore as we move forward with the capital planning process,” said Port Authority Chairman David Samson.
“Fliers arriving and departing the New York metropolitan area deserve efficient, modern aviation facilities, not the crowded gate-areas designed for DC-9s at the current Central Terminal Building,” said Pat Foye, the agency’s executive director. “We are working diligently in these times of economic hardship to make shortterm and long-term progress towards improving our facilities.”
Half of LaGuardia’s 72 aircraft gates are located at the Central Terminal Building. When it opened, the facility had a design capacity of eight million passengers annually, a figure that was surpassed by peak traffic in 2006, when it was used by nearly 13 million passengers. The current facility’s gate layout was designed for an earlier generation of smaller airplanes, making it difficult to achieve efficient utilization of gate spaces.
The $3.6 billion redevelopment program consists of a new $2.4 billion terminal and $1.2 billion in associated infrastructure.
Agency officials expect La- Guardia’s number of travelers to continue to rise over the next two decades, with the airport reaching 34 million passengers by 2030. More than half of those passengers are expected to use the new Central Terminal Building.
Because the federal government limits the number of flights that can take off and land per hour at La- Guardia, the anticipated increase in passengers will be accommodated by increasing the size of aircraft. The new Central Terminal Building will be built to accommodate these larger aircraft.
LaGuardia Airport had 24.1 million visitors in 2011.
