Gov. Cuomo Breaks Ground on Next Stage of LaGuardia Airport (KLGA) Renovation: Delta Air Lines begins $4 billion makeover of terminals C and D

The Wall Street Journal
By Paul Berger
Aug. 8, 2017 6:57 p.m. ET


After days of wrangling with New York City’s mayor over funding for a beleaguered subway, Gov. Andrew Cuomo turned to one of his favorite infrastructure topics Tuesday—the $8 billion makeover of LaGuardia Airport.

Mr. Cuomo traveled to the airport in Queens for a groundbreaking to mark the start of Delta Air Lines Inc.’s $4 billion renovation of terminals C and D.

Mr. Cuomo said following work that began last year on a $4 billion renovation of LaGuardia’s Terminal B, the airport “is going to be a beautiful front door to New York.”

Mr. Cuomo, who is believed to be considering a run for president in 2020, highlighted his record on infrastructure, taking what he said were projects “stuck in the quagmire of the bureaucracy” and bringing them to fruition. As examples, he pointed to the recently opened Second Avenue subway, the soon-to-open new Tappan Zee Bridge and a multibillion-dollar expansion of the Long Island Rail Road.

Across town, City Council members grilled Metropolitan Transportation Authority Managing Director Ronnie Hakim over the MTA’s call for the city to fund half of an $836 million rescue plan for a system that has been plagued with delays, overcrowding and equipment breakdowns as well as two derailments this summer.

Mr. Cuomo has said the city doesn’t contribute enough toward the running of the subway.

Mayor Bill de Blasio, who initially pushed back against such claims, called this week for a city “millionaire’s tax” that he said would raise $695 million for the MTA next year.

The tax would have to be approved by the state legislature. Mr. Cuomo said the subway can’t wait for such funds to become available.

LaGuardia Airport, which former Vice President Joe Biden once ridiculed as “Third World,” is a cornerstone of Mr. Cuomo’s infrastructure agenda.

Delta will pay $3.4 billion of the cost of the newly combined terminals C and D. The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey will pay the remaining $600 million.

The airport’s Terminal B is being developed as part of one of the nation’s largest public-private partnerships between the Port Authority and LaGuardia Gateway Partners, a consortium of companies including Vantage Airport Group, Skanska and Meridiam.

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