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LGA goes from third world to world class
New terminal, seen by few, is ‘just terrific’

While the rest of us were home stockpiling pasta and binge watching Netflix, LaGuardia Airport was nearly rebuilt from takeoff to landing.

Among the biggest surprises awaiting Queens residents once the COVID-19 pandemic recedes is going to be the $8 billion transformation of LaGuardia from something in a “third-world country,” as former Vice President Joe Biden once put it, to the most modern terminal since the Denver airport opened 25 years ago.

A few weeks ago, the latest gates opened at Terminal B — the airport’s brand-new terminal — with minimum fanfare.

Gov. Cuomo, who has made the rebuilding of New York City’s two airports a personal project, did not show up for the modest ribbon-cutting ceremony in late July, though in a press release he called the opening “the biggest milestone to date.”

The problem? Heavy restrictions on air travel since last March mean the new airport is standing largely unused. Few people, most of them brave out-of-towners, have seen the work that has been done.

The number of air passengers through LaGuardia is down 89 percent compared to last year, according to the July statistics released Monday by the Transportation Security Administration.

Flights in and out of LGA are down 70 percent, it said.

The new terminal was largely empty this week with no lines at the airline check-in desks and only an occasional car dropping off passengers on the new departure level.

“It’s just terrific,” Arcadia Williams, who’d just got off a flight from Miami on her way to visit her parents on Long Island after the long lockdown, said of the new terminal. “I hadn’t heard anything about this and I was knocked out. The old place was so dingy.”

After his fare rolled his luggage into the terminal, an Uber driver got out of his car to snap a quick cellphone photo of the splendid Manhattan skyline panorama now visible from the top-floor drop-off spot.

“I haven’t been here since they fixed it up,” the driver said. “What a nice view!”

Fallout from the pandemic has slowed down major construction projects all over the country. But the Port Authority revamped a number of its work practices to keep LaGuardia’s rebuilding going.

Employees’ temperatures are checked daily. Rather than making construction workers use on-site porta pottys, officials arranged to open unused bathrooms in the terminals, and to get them cleaned regularly. The changes worked.

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“The opening of Terminal B, the first new Arrivals and Departure Hall, was a major milestone in delivering on Gov. Cuomo’s vision for a brand new, 21st century LaGuardia Airport, and today, we are happy to see air travelers are finally enjoying a world class experience at LaGuardia.”

The new arrivals-and-departure terminal, which opened to the public last June, sits right next to the Grand Central Parkway and was built to handle twice as many passengers each year as the old one.

It is connected by sky bridges to two concourses for boarding. The western concourse, serving mostly American Airlines flights, opened seven new gates on Aug. 5. Ten more are set to open next year. Terminal B’s eastern concourse opened in late 2018, with 18 new gates.

Delta opened an eastern concourse of seven gates also. Together, more than 40 percent of the passengers using LaGuardia are departing or arriving via the new gates.

Demolition of the old, unloved terminal is set to begin next month.

The demolition, set to be completed by 2022, will free up space to build new taxiways behind the new Terminal B and, according to officials, alleviate the on-ground airplane traffic jams that are blamed for LaGuardia’s reputation for delays.

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https://www.qchron.com/editions/quee...f35548950.html