Metro
By Olivia Land
Printed
March 12, 2024, 2:05 p.m. ET
From “third world” to top-of-the-line.
LaGuardia Airport – which President Biden as soon as infamously in comparison with “some third world nation” – is now among the best North American airports, the Airport Service High quality survey revealed.
The flight hub was chosen alongside Minneapolis/St. Paul Worldwide Airport as one of the best midsize airport after it unveiled the completion of $8 billion in renovations final 12 months.
The brand new LaGuardia additionally obtained an total satisfaction rating of 4.25 out of 5, or a 20% soar from 2018, when passengers known as it the worst airport on the continent.
LaGuardia is now ranked among the many high North American airports, in keeping with the Airport Service High quality survey. Juan Gonzalez
Only a couple years in the past, LaGuardia was beset by delays, complaints about misplaced baggage, and shoddy customer support.
However some fliers had been fast to level out that the flashy renovations nonetheless left a number of issues missing.
LGA has no subway or commuter rail strains, and the one mass transit to the airport is by bus — one thing that may be a supply of hysteria and chaos for out-of-towners and locals alike.
Some felt just like the improve was nonetheless removed from world-class.
“Sure, new LaGuardia airport is best. However who designed ultra-long hikes to far-flung Terminal C gates with just one quick transferring sidewalk?” one X consumer wrote.
Some passengers declare LaGuardia continues to be the pits regardless of the pricey upgrades. AFP through Getty Photos
Others had been nonetheless scarred from previous experiences, with one other social media consumer writing that “The brand new LaGuardia is the one airport that has misplaced all of my baggage. So, so far as I’m involved, they nonetheless suck.”
Then-Vice President Biden used the airport as a punchline in 2014 to make a degree about how the U.S. must replace its infrastructure.
“If I blindfolded somebody and took him at 2 o’clock within the morning into the airport in Hong Kong and stated, ‘The place do you assume you’re?’ He’d say, ‘This should be America. It’s a contemporary airport,’” he stated in a speech.
“If I took you and blindfolded you and took you to LaGuardia Airport in New York, you’d assume, ‘I should be in some third-world nation.”
The airport not too long ago underwent an $8 billion renovation.
LaGuardia was so infamously abysmal that it was even skewered by “Saturday Evening Dwell” in a well-known skit about shopping for sushi on the airport.
Beginning in 2023, nonetheless, passengers had been handled to the outcomes of the multi-year renovation, which utterly rebuilt the ability to incorporate a Central Terminal Constructing and concourses impressed by New York Metropolis’s parks.
Former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo – who first introduced the renovations in 2014 – celebrated LGA’s newfound standing among the many better of one of the best on Tuesday.
“The rebuilding and reimagining of LaGuardia was carried out in document time beneath very tough circumstances and was an indication that daring efficiency and ambition might be actualized by the federal government,” Cuomo wrote on X.
The airport was famously mocked on “Saturday Evening Dwell.” Anadolu Company through Getty Photos
“[LGA] was universally considered the worst airport within the nation. It was the airport everybody cherished to hate. However not,” Port Authority Govt Director Rick Cotton added in an announcement concerning the survey outcomes.
“LaGuardia’s days as a punchline for late night time jokes is lastly over.”
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