New York La Guardia Airport (LGA)

LaGuardia Airport serves the large City of New York in the United States of America. It is part of the busiest airport system in the country and handles almost 25 million passengers per annum. The airport is known by its IATA code of LGA and its ICAO code of KLGA. Formerly, the names for this establishment were the Glenn H. Curtiss Airport, the North Beach Airport and the New York Municipal Airport – LaGuardia Field. LGA is served by a wide variety of airline companies, has a large number of useful facilities for its arriving and departing passengers and offers several forms of ground transportation.

This airport of New York City is located in the northern part of the borough of Queens, and alongside Flushing Bay and Bowery Bay. It has water on three sides, and is therefore accessed by only one main road, the Grand Central Parkway. The airport is nearby to the neighbourhoods of Astoria, Jackson Heights, Flushing, East Elmhurst and Whitestone, and is quite easily reached from the other main boroughs of New York City, which are Manhattan, Brooklyn, the Bronx and Staten Island. The airport is about 8 miles from Midtown Manhattan. The city of New York is found in the American state of New Jersey, to the eastern side of the country and to the south of Connecticut, to the north of Delaware and to the east of Pennsylvania. The North Atlantic Ocean borders New Jersey on its eastern side. Large cities nearby New York include Philadelphia.

Passengers can travel to LaGuardia Airport by private vehicle, as there are parking areas available on the airport grounds. Most areas have the same pricing structure, but there is also an Economy Parking Lot available. Alternatively, private shared-ride shuttles and public buses offer transport. Several NYC buses link the airport to various subway stations (there is no direct link to the New York City Subway system at the airport), and the NYC Airporter is a favourite ride from Penn Station and Grand Central Station. Taxis are available outside the terminal buildings, or can be taken from any area of the city.

Originally, when LGA was referred to as the Glenn H. Curtiss and the North Beach , it was in a different location. Although the North Beach location was ideal, it was too small. In 1937 construction began of a new airport in Queens. The site was chosen as it could then take advantage of the new Queens-Midtown tunnel to Manhattan. In 1939, American Airlines opened an Admirals Club in the airport’s building. The Admirals Club by this airline company was the first of its kind to open around the world. In the same year the airport became known as the New York Municipal Airport. At this time there were doubts as to whether the huge financial outlay provided for the construction would prove viable, but it wasn’t long before success was evident. The small Jackson Heights Holmes Airport was forced to close as it could not compete with the LaGuardia project. LaGuardia even surpassed the Newark, with commitments from several large airline companies before it was even completed. These companies included Pan American Airways, Eastern Air Lines, American Airlines and Transcontinental & Western Air.

By the later 1950’s LaGuardia Airport was handling approximately 283 weekday fixed-wing departures to Boston, Washington National, Cleveland, Chicago and other areas in the United States. As the airport’s passenger numbers steadily increased it became evident that it was now too small for its amount of air traffic. The increasing activities of LaGuardia caused the nearby Flushing Airport to close in pursuit of safety concerns, and in 1984, LGA was banned for non-stop flights to cities that were located more than 1,500 miles (2,400km) away. In addition, the FAA also put a limit on the number of flights and types of aircraft that could operate at LaGuardia Airport. Federal traffic limits were revoked by 2007. Recent developments at the airport have included renovations of the Central Terminal Building and a new control tower. Delta Shuttle also decided to move to Terminal A (Marine Air Terminal) and Delta Air Lines announced plans to open a new domestic hub, which will be one of the largest expansions for the airport in many years. By summer of 2012 Delta is expected to offer an average of 264 daily flights, to more than sixty cities. Delta Air Lines has committed to investing $100 million for terminal renovations.

Today, LaGuardia Airport is operated by the Port Authority of New York, and consists of four terminals and two main runways. Terminal A is the Marine Air Terminal, and was the original airport building. It then served international flights on flying boats. It has even been declared as a historic landmark, and serves as a weather station as well. The terminal is now used by Delta Shuttle, with flights to Boston, Chicago and Washington. Terminal A is also home to the largest mural that was created in the Rooseveld-era, WPA Federal Arts Program. Terminal B could be considered as the main terminal of the airport, and is referred to as the Central Terminal Building, or the CTB. It is large, six blocks long, and with a four-story central area, two three-story wings and four concourses, known as A, B, C and D. There are forty aircraft gates within the concourses. A few of the airline companies present at Terminal B are American Airlines, American Eagle, Frontier Airlines, JetBlue Airways, Southwest Airlines, Spirit Airlines, United Airlines and United Express.

Terminal C, or the US Airways Terminal, is mainly used by US Airways, and covers a surface area of 28,000 square metres. It was opened in September of 1992 at a cost of around $250 million. Terminal C is quite a large building as well, handling approximately 50% of LaGuardia’s regional airliner traffic. Terminal D, or the Delta Air Lines Terminal, was opened before Terminal C, in 1983, and cost approximately $90 million to build. It was especially designed to accommodate Delta’s new Boeing 757 and Boeing 767 aircraft. Delta uses LaGuardia Airport as a hub location, and offers flights to Charlotte, Cincinnati, Detroit, Denver, Kansas City, Miami, Orlando, Nassau, New Orleans, Memphis and a variety of other destinations. The busiest two routes of the airport are to Chicago and Atlanta. 2011 was one of the airport’s busiest years, with a total of 24,122,478 passengers. 2010 saw almost 24 million, and 2009 had just over 22 million passengers. In previous years (2005 and 2006) LaGuardia has handled over 25 million passengers in a twelve month period.

All terminal buildings of the airport are linked by free shuttle buses and walkways, and have all the necessary facilities for their passengers. There are many shops and restaurants, as well as other services, such as currency exchange services, banking facilities and Wi-Fi internet connections. The airport is completely accessible to disabled passengers as well.

LaGuardia Airport can be contacted for any further information required.