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- Traffic at New York’s LaGuardia Airport has been particularly severe this summer, alongside worse-than-normal waits at security and delays and cancellations caused by relentless thunderstorms.
- The airport is three years into a massive renovation program. The project hit "peak construction" this summer, coinciding with one of its busiest-ever summer travel periods.
- Last Thursday, travelers were seen abandoning buses and taxis to walk to the airport along the highway.
- Business Insider has taken several trips to the airport in recent weeks and confirmed that traffic delays easily add up to 30–45 minutes — even once you’re already on the airport’s grounds — and that waits at security have been severe. Keep reading for more on what’s behind this summer’s meltdown.
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LaGuardia Airport has been a traffic nightmare for years, with the former Vice President Joe Biden famously referring to it as "Third World."
But frequent flyers, business travelers, and summer vacationers have all noticed that for the past few months, things at one of the nation’s most crucial airports have been significantly worse than normal.
"It’s just a disaster here, I’ve never seen anything like this," a traveler named Erica told Gothamist, a New York City news blog.
While the airport is smaller in terms of annual passengers than nearby JFK or Newark, it is still the 21st busiest in the nation, and sees a significant share of domestic and business travel. It’s the 13th busiest in terms of number of originating airports, meaning passengers that start their journeys at the airport rather than connecting through it.
In recent weeks, travelers have routinely seen it take 30 to 45 minutes to drive between terminals at the airport, and traffic backing up to the highway that runs by it.
On Thursday afternoon, traffic at the airport was so bad that some travelers got out of their Ubers and taxis and chose to walk on the highway, weaving in and out among motionless cars on the hot asphalt.
Traffic hasn’t been the only pain point at the airport. Occasional security backups have added to the overall time it takes for passengers to get to their gates.
On one Thursday evening in July, for instance, Business Insider noted passengers at Terminal C — which houses Delta Air Lines — complaining about missing flights due to the amount of time it was taking to get through security. While passengers with imminent flights were being allowed to skip to the front of the line, this was not communicated unless passengers specifically asked.
David Slotnick/Business Insider
A Transportation Security Administration screening officer, who did not give his name, said that the delays were due to staffing shortages.
A spokesperson for the TSA told Business Insider that it has "been incredibly busy all summer at all three NY-area airports."
LaGuardia is owned and operated by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, but according to Danny Pearlstein, a representative from the transit advocacy organization Riders’ Alliance, part of the issue is that a wide variety of agencies and authorities oversee the infrastructure surrounding the airport.
"There’s a confluence of problems here," he told Gothamist. "The Port Authority is running the airport, you have the DOT running the roads around it, and you have the MTA running public transportation. There needs to be more coordination."
A renovation and reconstruction program began in 2016, one year after it was first announced. The program will essentially replace the current airport in phases, and redesign access roads and transit within the property.
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It was initially scheduled to continue until 2021, although construction to move the airport closer to the highway — creating more space for planes to taxi — is now expected to continue until 2022, with Delta’s work on its terminal buildings projected to finish in 2025.
David Slotnick/Business Insider
Traffic in and around the airport was expected to be severe this summer as the redevelopment program reached "peak construction." The Port Authority advises travelers to use public transit where possible and arrive at the airport early, and the MTA has waived fares on the Q70 "LaGuardia Link" bus for the summer.
David Slotnick/Business Insider
However, 90% of people traveling to and from the airport still use private cars, taxis, and ride-hailing services. Although buses to subway stations are available, there are no dedicated bus lanes, meaning they end up sitting in traffic along with the rest of the cars.
There’s also been higher travel volume than normal — Thursday, August 8, was the second-busiest day ever at the airport. On several recent summer Thursdays, Business Insider also saw buses that were so crowded that some passengers had to wait for the next one.
Complicating the problem, July and August 2019 have seen frequent strong thunderstorms around the country, causing air-traffic delays and ground stops. Additionally, LaGuardia had to temporarily close one of its runways for a short period on a Friday and Saturday in July due to unspecified emergency repairs — a spokesperson for the Port Authority categorized the repair work as having a minimal impact on flight operations.
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who oversees the Port Authority, described the traffic as "unavoidable" in an interview on radio station WNYC.
"LaGuardia is one of the smallest airports in the country, it’s tiny," he said in the interview. "So the challenge is to operate an airport, rebuild the airport at the same time, and then manage the traffic on the highest volume days."
In the meantime, the Port Authority continues to advise travelers to leave plenty of extra time to get to the airport — especially on anticipated peak travel days — while Gov. Cuomo said that the pain will be ultimately worth it.
"The good news is the whole project will be about two years," he said in the WNYC interview, "and then New Yorkers are going to have the first new airport in 25 years in the United States of America."
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Source: Business Insider – dslotnick@businessinsider.com (David Slotnick)