Cash Alone Can't Fix What Ails Crowded LaGuardia

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo's revamp of LaGuardia Airport in Queens is scheduled to begin in just a few months.

"It's not a plan," Cuomo promised when he announced the plan in July. "It's not a sketch. It's not a dream. It's not a vision. It is actually happening." 

The redesign re-envisions the airport as a more passenger friendly place, with a unified terminal and more shopping and dining alternatives.

But many aviation experts predict the overhaul will not fully address LaGuardia's notorious problem of flight delays. The airport came in dead last in on-time arrival performance through August of this year, according to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics.

"The primary reason for delays is limits on the runway capacity, to do with runway configuration and direction of the wind," said Lance Sherry, director of the Center for Air Transportation Systems Research at George Mason University.

Controlling wind direction is impossible. New runways are nearly so: LaGuardia does not have enough space where an additional runway could be built. And an expert panel advising the Cuomo administration ruled out reconfiguring runways because the time it would take to get federal approval.

In its report to the governor, the panel instead suggested building a new central terminal 600 feet closer to a nearby highway. It said moving the terminal would free up more than two miles of additional aircraft taxiway space that would improve overall airport efficiency.

The plans also call for an automated tram, or people mover, so passengers can more easily move between gates. The design also makes room for a hotel, creates more parking area and will allow for an eventual AirTrain and ferry service to and from the Queens facility.

"It is an extreme makeover," said airline industry analyst Robert W. Mann. "But it's not treating the problem. It’s just creating a larger waiting room for whatever the capacity for the runway system is at."

Piecemeal solutions might come from a satellite-based system known as NextGen, but that project is costly and is less effective during bad weather.

A cheaper fix, Professor Sherry said, might come from computer programs that optimize the flow of jets in and out of the aging facility. This type of software can land larger jets carrying passengers with connecting flights first, so fewer people experience delays. It's most promising in airports where one airline is dominant, like the Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport.

LaGuardia's physical transformation will also be expensive. It's a $4 billion dollar construction project, though about half the cost will be privately funded.

But according to minutes from a meeting of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey Board of Commissioners, passengers will likely have to cough up some money to pay for part of the upgrade, in the form of passenger fees.

The Port Authority board is putting in a request to the federal government, asking that it be permitted to increase passenger facility charges at LaGuardia to help it recover $110.9 million it is spending on preliminary construction activities.

The Federal Aviation Administration earlier gave the Port Authority permission to collect up to $1.03 billion in passenger fees through Jan. 1, 2019. A $4.50 charge gets tacked onto every leg of a flight that passes through the Queens facility. 

If the additional amount it approved, the airport would be allowed to collect the $4.50 fee past the current 2019 cut off.