LaGuardia is New York's main domestic airport, due to its central location in respect to the rest of the city (especially Manhattan). However, because its runways and terminals are too small to accommodate widebody aircraft, most transcontinental and international flights use JFK International Airport in Jamaica, New York or Newark Liberty International in Newark, New Jersey.
| Table of contents |
|
2 Terminals
2.1 Central Terminal Building (CTB)
3 External Links2.2 Delta Terminal 2.3 Marine Air Terminal 2.4 US Airways Terminal |
History
The initiative to develop the airport began with a verbal outburst by New York mayor Fiorello LaGuardia upon the arrival of his TWA flight at Newark. He demanded to be taken to New York, and ordered the plane to be flown to Brooklyn's Floyd Bennett Field, giving an impromptu press conference to reporters along the way. At that time, he urged New Yorkers to support a new airport within their city.
American Airlines accepted LaGuardia's offer to start a pilot program of scheduled flights to Floyd Bennett, although the program failed after several months because of Newark's relative proximity to Manhattan (LaGuardia went as far as to offer police escorts to airport limousines, in an attempt to get American to stay).
During the Floyd Bennett experiment, LaGuardia and American executives began an alternative plan to build a new airport in Queens, where it could take advantage of the new Queens-Midtown Tunnel to Manhattan. This was the site eventually chosen for the new airport. Building on the site required moving landfill from Rikers Island, then a garbage dump, onto a metal reinforcing framework. The framework below the airport still causes magnetic interference on the compasses of outgoing aircraft: signs on the airfield warn pilots about the problem.
The airport was dedicated on October 15, 1939 as the New York Municipal Airport, and opened for business on that December 2nd. During the dedication ceremony, a banner plane flew overhead, with the words "NAME IT LAGUARDIA" fluttering along behind it. The modern name was officially applied a few days later.
Because of American's pivotal role in the development of the airport, LaGuardia gave the airline extra real estate during the airport's first year of operation, including four hangars (an unprecedented amount of space at the time) and a large office space that would be turned into the world's first airline lounge, the LaGuardia Admirals Club.
On December 29, 1975, a bomb exploded at LaGuardia, killing 11 people and injuring 74. The exact perpetrators behind this attack are not known.
La Guardia has four terminals connected by buses and walkways.
Terminals
Central Terminal Building (CTB)
Concourse A
Concourse B
Concourse C
Concourse D
Delta Terminal
Marine Air Terminal
The MAT was the airport's original terminal. It is so named because it once served the flying boats of Pan American World Airways, the mainstay of international travel during the thirties and forties. Pan Am later used the terminal for its shuttle service.US Airways Terminal
External Links