“It’s slow, dated and a bad entranceway to New York – a lost opportunity. And now we’re going to get it”, Cuomo said.
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The airport renewal project is expected to generate 8,000 construction jobs and another 3,700 jobs at a planned new airport hotel.
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With the vice president at his side, Cuomo said the airport would feature one unified terminal in place of the four existing “disparate” terminals.
The vice president praised Christie’s New York counterpart for “thinking big” to transform the region’s airports.
Governor Andrew Cuomo was joined by Biden to announce that New York has been selected by the Department of Defense to lead a prestigious, multi-state Integrated Photonics Institute for Manufacturing Innovation.
According to CNBC’s Reem Nasr, Cuomo told the audience that numerous approvals that would have taken years to complete were expedited by the vice president’s office.
A key component of the project, Cuomo said, is that the entire terminal area will be moved 600 feet closer to the Grand Central Parkway, providing more space for flight operations. Originally opened in 1939, the Art Deco structure was the first passenger terminal at LaGuardia Airport, where travelers took off in seaplanes from the neighboring waters of Jamaica Bay. Delta is a partner in the new terminal.
John F. Kennedy Airport will also receive improvements as part of the wider infrastructure overhaul.
“An outdated, overcrowded, and poorly designed facility is holding back LaGuardia’s employees”, Biden said.
In 2012, Travel and Leisure magazine named LaGuardia the nation’s worst airport, saying it had the “dubious honor of ranking the worst for the check-in and security process, the worst for baggage handling, the worst when it comes to providing Wi-Fi, the worst at staff communication, and the worst design and cleanliness”.
“I think it looks exhausted”, noted another traveler.
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