New York City’s three primary airports: Newark, LaGuardia, Kennedy
I think I might be dreaming, but the Wall Street Journal reported today that regulators in New York are studying removing the age-old and useless “perimeter rules” that forbid most flights from west coast cities from landing at close in and convenient La Guardia airport.
Here’s the nut of that article:
In late 2013, when San Francisco-based Virgin America snagged 12 slots at New York’s popular (but creaky) La Guardia Airport (LGA) I began to wonder if it would launch an effort to get rid of the rules (see post). I suspect both Delta and Virgin would love to add lucrative new routes from their hubs at LAX and SFO as well as other key west coast cities such at Seattle, Las Vegas, Portland or San Diego. American Airlines, with a big presence at both LAX and LGA would likely love to see the rules dumped, too.
Last year Virgin CEO David Cush said that the airline had a few tricks up its sleeves, and I’m wondering now if transcon flights from LAX and SFO to LaGuardia might be one of those tricks. Today, a spokesperson told TravelSkills, “We’re very supportive of the move to lift restrictions at LaGuardia, as long as the process also ensures that smaller and new entrant carriers at that airport have fair access in terms of the potential expansion opportunities.”
Wouldn’t it be nice to fly nonstop from SFO, SEA or LAX to close-in LaGuardia (LGA) and only have to deal with a 25-or-so-minute hop into Manhattan instead of that 45+ minute, traffic-clogged slog in from JFK or Newark? Last year I flew Delta from California (via Atlanta) to La Guardia and was very impressed with its two recently updated terminals there.
From LGA, the trip to Manhattan via cab or car is about 25 minutes vs 45-60 minutes from JFK. (Cost is $30-35 plus tip and toll from LGA and a flat $52 plus tip and toll from JFK.)
Delta’s swank LaGuardia facilities (Photo: ICRAVE Design)
The useless “perimeter rules” forbid flights from more than 1,500 miles away from landing at LGA, effectively shutting out west coast cities. They were put in place to help shift demand to the newer Kennedy and Newark airports in the 1960s.
Does Virgin America need lie-flat seats to compete?
If the Port Authority decides to abolish the rules, or at least make some exceptions, it won’t be the first time– For example Denver International, which is 1,600 miles away, received an exemption from the rule in the 1980s. Oddly, the rule does not apply on Saturdays and back in 2004, now defunct American Trans Air (ATA) proposed nonstop service from LaGuardia to SFO with continuing service to Honolulu. Delta offers Saturday only flights from between LGA and Aruba.
In 2009, Senator John McCain tried (but failed) to abolish the perimeter rules at both LGA and Washington-National.
Last year, similar rules disallowing flights from the west coast to the very convenient Washington National Airport (as opposed to the horribly inconvenient Dulles International) were overturned, allowing nonstops on Virgin and United from San Francisco.
What’s your preferred NYC airport? Why? If La Guardia’s perimeter rules get overturned, would you choose it over Newark or JFK? Please leave your comments below.
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Salvatore Johnson says
February 27, 2015 at 6:37 amThese have always been ancient and archaic rules, put in place to make sure that you use another airport. In the case of Love Field, which is the easier of airports, the good folks of Texas wanted to make sure you use Dallas Fort Worth Airport. The same with Washington D.C., the federal government built Dulles and wanted to make sure that folks used that. In the case of LaGuardia frankly the runways were too short to accommodate a plane loaded with a lot of fuel and passengers,
Another reason you never saw the airlines fighting this, in the good old days of flying most of the carries of choice like United and American would fly wide body planes from New York/Washington to L.A. or SFO. This was because of the comfort of the passenger and the wide body made those long journey flights. But now you don’t see airlines flying 767, 747 or 777 coast to coast anymore. In the interst of saving money and controling the inventory of seats, airlines first started flying 757s on those routes and since have change to airbus 320s and 737s. The bigger 767, 747 and 777s couldn’t take off from National or LaGuardia so that was a big reason the airlines never tested the waters.
A couple of years ago Virgin started flying non-stop from Washington National to San Francisco and Alaska Air flys non-stop from National to Portland, so that was the first to break. So I can see more folks flying from LaGuardia to the West Coast. Also one reader talked about Newark, a lot of folks that live on the west side and the bottom of Manhattan prefer Newark over LaGuardia and JFK, one of the reasons that airlines never wanted to flight this old rule.
Roundo says
February 25, 2015 at 8:01 pmWhat could possibly be more important than the inflight experience 5+ hours coast-to-coast . The lounge LGA vs JFK means nothing by comparison
Jeff says
February 25, 2015 at 6:47 pmJFK is my preference due to the reduced hassle effect (which is relative to nothing in the USA). Renting a car and trying to get out of LGA is BUSINESS MODE AT THE WHEEL. Not sure if it was this blog or another talked about the need to expand LGA and the idea was floated (and fleshed out) to use Rikers Island in some way. massive issues obviously but NYC needs to come up with something whether it is to eliminate any aircraft under 120 passengers or expand into the water.
Chris McGinnis says
February 25, 2015 at 6:46 pmoops! Changing the photo now! THANKS!
Josh says
February 25, 2015 at 6:38 pmThat pic of Delta’s swank LaGuardia facility looks a lot like JFK T2!
RichW says
February 25, 2015 at 6:25 pmI haven’t seen the Delta facilities at LGA (except in the photo you posted). Since Jeff $mi$ek has turned United into a less-than-stellar airline, I’ll be using up my MileagePlus points as soon as possible, and then I’ll be free to try Delta once again.
Chris McGinnis says
February 25, 2015 at 6:11 pmThanks, Rich… but have you seen how Delta has spiffed up its facilities there? I agree that the rest of the airport is pretty bad, but the Delta side is nice! –chris
Roundo says
February 25, 2015 at 6:11 pmI believe there are LGA weight restrictions that trump any relaxation of perimeter restrictions and I think that would restrict flights to single aisle aircraft. I live in Manhattan and I fly Business; thus it will depend on the equipment, the seating and the time of the flight whether I use LGA over JFK..
RichW says
February 25, 2015 at 6:10 pmHaving lived in Manhattan for 20 years before moving to San Francisco 16 years ago, I hated the LaGuardia Airport then, and continue to despise it now. While the commute by taxi is certainly shorter between LGA and Manhattan, the airport facilities are outdated, cramped and a horrible passenger experience, in my mind. I’d rather take the AirTrain from JFK than a taxi from LGA, anyway.
Mark Gerrard says
February 25, 2015 at 6:07 pmI prefer Newark being that I’m on that side of the river, but have been known to go to JFK. I wouldn’t fly from LGA because of the parking costs due to lack of competition between off airport parking lots. The problem I see with non-stops to the west coast (at least for departures) from LGA is going to be weight restrictions for aircraft due to the short runways.
Susie Walker says
February 25, 2015 at 6:00 pmUnited would be screwed. I’d never fly to JFK or EWR again.
Janak Parekh says
February 25, 2015 at 4:34 pmTo be clear: DCA has always had a perimeter restriction, and it’s still there. The FAA has slowly been adding a few slot exemptions; they’re now up to 20. (Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronald_Reagan_Washington_National_Airport#Perimeter_restrictions)
Abolishing it for LGA would be really interesting, but the big challenge is that LGA is already pretty much maxed out in terms of gate and runway space and has very little wiggle room for IRROPS. Moreover, the distance to JFK or EWR is somewhat reduced, IMO, when you have a very long flight. But maybe that’s just me. 🙂