Gov. Cuomo unveils gleaming new arrivals terminal at LaGuardia Airport
From “third world” to state of the art.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Wednesday unveiled the newly opened arrivals and departures terminal at LaGuardia Airport during his daily coronavirus briefing.
“LaGuardia Airport is going to be the first new airport in the United States of America in 25 years,” a beaming Cuomo told reporters alongside Port Authority of New York and New Jersey Executive Director Rick Cotton while seated in the new terminal.
“This is not just a new airport. This is, build a new airport while you are operating the old airport,” the governor said. “This is, renovate your home while you’re living in the home.”
Despite Cuomo’s claim that La Guardia will be the country’s first new airport in a quarter-century, the Austin–Bergstrom International Airport opened in 1999 and Detroit rebuilt its airport around the same time.
La Guardia’s new Terminal B Arrivals and Departures Hall is now officially open and will have its first flights go out on Saturday. It has a total of 35 gates and serves American Airlines, United Airlines, Southwest Airlines and Air Canada.
The terminal — which is part of a large-scale $8 billion redevelopment of the northern Queens airport — is 50 percent bigger than the old terminal it replaces and can accommodate 17 million passengers a year, Cotton said.
It features “extensive new concessions” that are mostly “iconic local concessions,” said Cotton.
Eateries include: Junior’s Cheesecake, Brooklyn Diner, Think Coffee, Tony + Benny’s Authentic Brooklyn Pizza, Hill Country and more upscale joints like chef Marc Forgione’s new Mulberry Street Restaurant.
Cotton called the completion of the 850,000-square-foot, four-story terminal “a major milestone.”
“Every single legacy passenger building torn down, with the exception of the landmarked Marine Air Terminal,” Cotton said.
“In their place, a new state-of-the-art airport worthy of New York, with a wholly new roadway network. … LaGuardia will be the first new airport in the country in more than 25 years.”
LaGuardia’s ongoing transformation makes it go “From worst airport in the country to the best. From appalling substandard to 21st-century best-in-class. From the laughingstock on ‘Saturday Night Live’ skits to bringing into reality the extraordinary vision of Gov. Cuomo to have a world-class airport worthy of New York,” said Cotton.
In 2014, then Vice President Joe Biden infamously said that La Guardia Airport was something out of a “Third World country” and Cotton referred to those remarks during the press briefing.
The “spacious” terminal “paired with a new network of access roadways, will provide travelers with a 21st century airport experience — a far cry from Joe Biden’s famous condemnation of La Guardia as ‘Third World,’” Cotton said.
The facility is home to a host of shops including Kate Spade, the Strand Book Store, FAO Schwarz and Swatch — and four public art installations created by artists Jeppe Hein, Sabine Hornig, Laura Owens, and Sarah Sze.
A monumental globe sculpture suspends from the ceiling of the terminal, which also boasts a massive ceramic tile mosaic wall mural of the sky featuring the names of iconic Big Apple locations like The Stonewall Inn, the Apollo Theater, Grand Central-42nd Street, as well as a depiction of an ice cream truck, a pizza slice and a hot dog.
The terminal was outfitted for a post-coronavirus crisis world with plexiglass sneeze guards in all places where a traveler may interact with an employee and a slew of touchless hand sanitizer stations.
Cuomo said the renovation was needed “30 years ago” as he described the old LaGuardia as “an embarrassment.”
“We needed this. We needed this today. We needed to see light at the end of the tunnel. We needed to see possibility. We needed to see New York stand up and shine,” Cuomo said of the overhaul before a ribbon cutting ceremony.
“Yes, we’ve gone through a rough 101 days,” Cuomo said in reference to the coronavirus pandemic. “But you ain’t seen nothing yet.”
Due to the coronavirus crisis, passenger volume is down 95 percent at the city’s airports, according to Cotton.
Reconstruction on the airport began four years ago and is slated to be completed in 1.5 years. It will eventually comprise of 72 new gates across six concourses, two new terminals, and an AirTrain.
Meanwhile, during the press conference, Cuomo said the state’s phased reopening from its coronavirus-induced slumber should be viewed as an opportunity to “stimulate the economy.”
“Let’s not just reopen, but have an affirmative strategy that energizes the reopening,” Cuomo said, adding, “Now is the time to do large-scale development projects.”
“Our goal is not to just reopen. Our goal is to stimulate the economy. Regrow better than before,” the governor said.