Cuomo and the Port Authority announced a $4 billion overhaul earlier this month of the main LaGuardia terminal at an airport that Biden once likened to those in a “Third World country”. Cuomo said today the entire project would cost $7 billion when all the terminals are rebuilt.
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“This is an exciting day”, New York Gov. Andew Cuomo said during an afternoon press conference, flanked by vice president Joe Biden.
Authorities broke ground Tuesday on a $4 billion remake of LaGuardia Airport in NY.
Cuomo, who posed with airline and Port Authority officials for the ceremonial shoveling of dirt on the airport’s tarmac, said he heeded Biden’s words when he chided LaGuardia Airport for being old and outmoded.
Unlike the current Terminal B, where travelers must pass through a separate security checkpoint to access each of the four main concourses, once completed, the new Central Terminal Building will feature one security checkpoint providing travelers with access to all concourses, according to the developer, LaGuardia Gateway Partners.
“It’s the single best bang for the buck that we can do”, Biden said.
“When he said, and we kid him about it, that if you landed in LGA and you were blindfolded and they took off the blindfold you’d think you’d be in a Third World country, it was his way of saying the king has no clothes, and he was right”, Cuomo said of his fellow Democratic politician.
Vancouver based, Canadian developer, Vantage Airport Group Ltd., which has given a makeover to airports starting from Chile to New Zealand is also working towards overhauling the LaGuardia airport in NY.
“Most people who come to NY come right through this airport and this airport has been long overdue for a new airport as we all know”, said Cuomo.
Cuomo lamented how NY had “lost its mojo”.
A bus route to the airport that’s popular with fliers, meanwhile, will be rebranded as a shuttle nicknamed LaGuardia Link. There will also be 3,000 new parking spaces, and the whole thing will move a hair closer to Grand Central Parkway, a move that will reportedly “increase airport taxiways by more than two miles and reduce airport ground delays”.
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“From the front door of the airport to the aircraft will be unaffected by the construction”, said Steeves.
