‘From Worst to Best’: Gleaming New La Guardia Terminal Opens (Published 2022)
- ️Thu Jan 27 2022
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‘From Worst to Best’: Gleaming New La Guardia Terminal Opens
The airport that Joe Biden once said was more suited to a “third-world’’ country has a gleaming new terminal to show off.
Jan. 27, 2022
For decades, La Guardia Airport was one of the most maligned airports in the country — leaky ceilings, cramped corridors, regular rodent sightings and broken escalators set a standard for the dreadful travel experience.
The old airport was so decrepit that Joe Biden, when he was vice president in 2014, famously likened passing through it to a trip to the “third world.” Travelers were even less charitable, deeming it “disgusting” and “crappy” in social media posts, an embarrassing port of entry to a global capital.
But on Thursday, the views and reviews were far different as state and local officials celebrated the airport’s revival upon the completion of a wholly new main terminal that shares nothing but a name and location with the old La Guardia along the Queens waterfront.
The transformation has been so remarkable that the terminal was declared the best new airport building in the world by an international panel of judges.
“We’ve really gone from worst to best and I love it,” said Gov. Kathy Hochul, at a news conference in the last section of the terminal to open to the public, a sunlit skybridge that connects to 35 spacious new gates and offers a glimpse of the Manhattan skyline.
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