In a Queens miracle, New York LaGuardia Airport goes from loser to winner

Throughout a troubled 2022, the pandemic exposed many fragilities in a troubled US airline industry, but it also enabled a widely recognized miracle in the $8b resurrection of New York LaGuardia Airport. Once widely viewed as a hellhole, LaGuardia was transformed. Transformation involved rebuilding two terminals, each costing about $4b, as well as about five miles of roadway. Terminal B has 35 gates, occupied by American and four other airlines. Work began in 2016 and was completed on July 8, 2022, the exact day specified in a bond offering six years earlier. Terminal C, occupied and financed by Delta Air Lines, will have 37 gates. Work began in 2017 and is largely finished, with completion by the end of the year. “You’ve had two miracles in Queens,” said Rick Cotton, executive director of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. “One was the Mets World Series win (in 1969) and the other was the rebuilding of LaGuardia in record time and while the airport was operating throughout the construction. LaGuardia was the first totally new major airport in the United States since Denver, and Denver was a greenfield.” The 1969 New York Mets are widely referred to as “the Miracle Mets’ for winning the Series after never playing a winning season. Denver International Airport opened in 1995. Last week, Terminal B was recognized by Skytrax, a London-based transport rating firm, which ranked it as the world’s best new airport terminal. Terminal B is the first terminal in North America to receive a five-star airport terminal rating. Primary occupant American Airlines and Northeast Alliance partner JetBlue occupy about half of the gates; passengers connect easily between the two carriers. A second concourse is occupied by Southwest, United and Air Canada.<br/>