For those who have either suffered through the cramped and rundown days of New York’s LaGuardia Airport, or who have suffered through the past three years of shifting roadways, choking traffic and changing pathways and gates, Saturday will mark a new era as the new main concourse opens.
One of the new concourses of the Central Terminal (Terminal B) opened late last year, but not the ‘headhouse’ that links all the new terminal’s concourses and provides check-in and baggage claim as well as an expanded selection of shops and restaurants. Terminal B will serve all airlines except for JetBlue, in the old Marine Air Terminal (Terminal A) and Delta in the still-under-renovation Terminal C, which combines the old terminals C and D.
The project is almost a new airport; the new terminals are placed almost up to the highway passing the airport, which is squeezed between the highway and Long Island Sound. The relocation gives the airport much more taxi space and is expected to help the airport avoid some of the long delays of the past.
Early in the coronavirus crisis, work slowed down, but more recently it was sped up to catch up. There’s also a plan for an AirTrain to connect the airport to Manhattan, but it’s become a controversial subject as NY Gov. Cuomo has insisted on a plan for an airport train that would start by heading away from Manhattan to connect to a subway station where passengers would switch direction; many transportation planners and locals would prefer simply extending a subway line that comes near straight into the airport.
