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Delta’s striking new plans for New York – LaGuardia

The new LaGuardia will replace separate terminals with a unified structure. (Image: New York Governor's Office)

The new LaGuardia will replace separate terminals with a unified structure. (Image: New York Governor’s Office)

When New York State officials unveiled plans last year for a huge reconstruction of LaGuardia Airport, they said that Delta Air Lines would play a major role in the project. And now Delta has firmed up its plans for a new presence at LGA.

Just hours after it revealed that it will undertake a major overhaul of Los Angeles International’s Terminals 2 and 3, where it will relocate its LAX operations, Delta announced plans to replace its Terminals C and D at LaGuardia with a new 37-gate terminal featuring four concourses linked by a central check-in lobby, security checkpoint and baggage claim area.

The new terminal will include a new and bigger Sky Club with a Sky Deck, Delta said, along with wider concourses, bigger gate areas with more seating, and 30 percent more concessions space than the existing Terminals C and D.

“The facility will also offer direct access between the parking garage and terminal, improved roadways and drop-off/pick-up areas, and a curbside check-in bypass leading directly into the security checkpoint,” the company noted. And most of the new gates will have access to dual taxi lanes for aircraft, which will mean less taxi time to and from the gate.

The current terminal layout at LGA. (Image: LaGuardia Airport)

The current terminal layout at LGA- Delta is in Terminal C and D. (Image: LaGuardia Airport)

Delta said construction of the new facility will begin “as soon as possible, following regulatory approvals and final lease negotiations.” The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey this week approved the project as part of a new lease agreement to be negotiated for Delta’s continuing presence at LGA through 2050.

Delta currently operates 275 departures a day at LaGuardia from Terminals A, C and D.

The plans for a new Delta terminal at LGA are just part of a larger multi-year redevelopment of the entire airport that will cost $4 billion and will bring passenger terminals together into a large, modernistic structure that will be hundreds of feet closer to the Grand Central Parkway than the airport’s existing facilities. The project will also create new transportation links to Manhattan via an AirTrain system and passenger ferries, as well as a new hotel/conference center.

Related: Delta seeks La Guardia-California nonstops

The approval of Delta’s plans for a big new terminal at LaGuardia has revived speculation that the airline might expect a favor from New York State and the Port Authority in return – specifically, a lifting of LaGuardia’s Perimeter Rule, which limits flights out of LGA to a maximum of 1,500 miles – preventing airlines from tapping into lucrative transcontinental non-stop routes, now available only from New York JFK and Newark airports.

Would you fly Delta more if it could finable nonstops to LGA from the West Coast? What are your thoughts on La Guardia airport overall? Please leave your comments below.

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What was in it for Smisek and United?

Does Newark Airport need another rail link from Manhattan? (Image: Newark Liberty International Airport)

Does Newark Airport need another rail link from Manhattan? (Image: Newark Liberty International Airport)

Much of the coverage last week about the sudden departure of United CEO Jeff Smisek focused on possible collusion between Smisek and former New York-New Jersey Port Authority Chairman David Samson — something the federal government is investigating. The reports noted that United had revived a money-losing route between Newark and Columbia, South Carolina, a route that Samson had requested because he has a vacation home there.

But what was in it for United? Better, faster rail links to Wall Street.

With its big hub operation at Newark Airport, United would stand to gain a greater share of the lucrative business travel market from New York’s Financial District if travelers could simply hop a direct train from Wall Street to the airport — a much more attractive prospect than long and expensive taxi rides to LaGuardia or JFK.  United’s west coast routes would especially benefit, since the airline is moving its premium p.s. transcon service from JFK to Newark in late October. The Wall Street-area PATH trains operate out of a big transportation hub incorporated into the new World Trade Center project.

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An editorial in NJ.com, a news website of the Newark Star-Ledger, prefaces its comments with all the usual cautions that nobody has been indicted and this is all speculation, it says that the Port Authority’s plan to spend $1.5 billion extending the local PATH trains to Newark Airport “seemed like a strange decision” since other projects should have taken priority. Following last week’s events at United, “there is reason to at least suspect that sinister motives may have been at work,” the editorial says.

The PATH train system (it stands for Port Authority Trans Hudson) is a network of underground commuter rail lines that link midtown and lower Manhattan to stations just across the Hudson River in New Jersey, extending as far as Penn Station in downtown Newark.

An extension of the PATH network to Newark Airport would mainly benefit riders from lower Manhattan, where the Financial District is based. In midtown Manhattan, New Jersey Transit and Amtrak trains already operate from Penn Station to the Newark Airport station.

NJ.com said some New Jersey Democratic legislators want to suspend funding for the PATH expansion project until more is known about the Port Authority-United business — something the editorial called “a prudent request.” A PATH extension to EWR would be used by about 7,000 people a day, while other infrastructure projects would benefit much larger numbers, the editorial said. It cited the need to build a long-overdue rail tunnel under the Hudson (something New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie rejected a few years ago) and to expand the cramped Port Authority Bus Terminal in Manhattan, which serves 200,000 people a day.

NOTE: Be sure to click here to see all recent TravelSkills posts about: Surviving San Franciso + Photos: New United first class seat + Save money on calls from other countries + 6 secrets for snagging low fares

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