State and city leaders celebrated the completion of LaGuardia Airport’s $4 billion renovation of Terminal B Thursday.
The airport once described by President Joe Biden as something out of a “third world country,” has transformed into an award-winning flight hub, according to Governor Kathy Hochul.
“We have literally gone from worst to best and I love it,” Hochul said during a Jan. 27 press conference. “This is just a statement of who we are. We know we’re the best, we know we’re the best, but sometimes you need the places to speak that loudly as well, and this place shouts it from the mountaintops.”
The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey’s private contractors finished Terminal B’s revamp, which features 1.35 million square feet of new facilities, 35 gates, a 3,000-car parking garage, and newly covered pick-up areas for taxis and ride-shares.
It is part of a massive $8 billion reconstruction of the Queens airport launched by former Governor Andrew Cuomo in 2015, which also included the now up-in-the-air plans for a rail connector.
Located at the western side of the airport, the new terminal has opened in phases in recent years, with the first of 18 new gates and the first new concourse welcoming passengers in late 2018.
The complete airport project is two-thirds funded by private companies and Terminal B was developed by a consortium dubbed LaGuardia Gateway Partners, which includes Vantage Airport Group, Skanska, Meridiam, and JLC Infrastructure.
Delta Air Lines is working on overhauling Terminal C to the east, which Port Authority Executive Director Rick Cotton said will wrap up this spring.
“Every single traveller coming to Terminal B will now have a world class experience going from curb to gate or from gate to curb,” Cotton said. “New York at long last has the world class gateway that a world class city and state deserve.”
In December, Terminal B got the prestigious UNESCO Prix Versaille award for the best new airport in the world thanks to its architecture and design.
The bi-state Authority hit the brakes on the $2.1 billion proposal for an AirTrain to Mets-Willets Point in October at the request of Hochul and convened a panel of experts to review alternatives.
