USA. The Governor of New York State has strongly criticised the rate of development at John F. Kennedy International Airport and LaGuardia Airport and vowed to take control of construction work. He will prioritise the construction of a new Central Terminal Building at LaGuardia and has also targeted the development of “high-quality affordable retail shopping” at both New York gateways.
In his annual “˜State of the State’ speech, delivered earlier this week, Andrew Cuomo detailed how New York had fallen behind the rest of the world, and indeed the rest of the USA, in terms of updating its airports.
“LaGuardia airport is ranked as the worst airport in America believe it or not,” he added. “That is a disgrace and it is unacceptable and it is going to change. We need to modernise JFK and LaGuardia; we have talked about it for too long.
“We will assume management responsibility from the Port Authority [of New York & New Jersey] for construction at JFK and LaGuardia airports. We are going to step in [and] stop talking about it. [We will] get the government to work and we are going to redevelop those airports the way they should have been redeveloped many, many years ago and make us proud of that gateway once again.”
 |
Taking control: New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has vowed to transform JFK and LaGuardia into airports that can “make us proud” |
In a book accompanying the speech, his office said LaGuardia remained “frozen in time”, with its Central Terminal Building “antiquated and ill-suited to meet today’s demands”.
“This year, it will serve 12.5 million passengers, over +50% more than its original designed capacity of eight million passengers. By 2030, traffic is projected to grow to 17.5 million passengers,” it said. “The Central Terminal Building’s amenities have barely improved, and as a result, passengers must endure cramped, poorly lit, and overcrowded terminals.
“Governor Cuomo is advancing the construction of a new LaGuardia Central Terminal Building as the centrepiece of a comprehensive plan to modernise the airport.”
The book also detailed how the state will identify areas where it can rethink ways to improve the customer experience. “This includes bringing state-of-the-art amenities such as high-quality affordable retail shopping, satellites of high-end and popular NYC restaurants, on-airport hotels, showers, expanded, cleaner bathrooms, free Wi-Fi service, rapid charging stations, and other new technologies,” it said.
The redeveloped Terminal 4 opened at JFK International earlier this year, featuring a strong new commercial offer and a completely renewed duty free offer from DFS Group. This was detailed in Issue 80 of The Moodie Report e-Zine, available here.
