LaGuardia Airport Guide

LaGuardia Airport sits in the East Elmhurst neighborhood of Queens, New York, on the northwestern shore of Long Island along Flushing Bay. At roughly 13 km from Midtown Manhattan, it is the closest of New York City's three major commercial airports to the urban core. The airport handles primarily domestic traffic — a perimeter rule prohibits most nonstop flights beyond 2,400 km, making it a hub for East Coast and Midwest routes.

Opened in December 1939 as New York Municipal Airport, the facility was renamed LaGuardia Airport in 1947 after Mayor Fiorello La Guardia, who championed its construction to give New York City its own air gateway. Decades of criticism over aging infrastructure led the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey to begin a multibillion-dollar reconstruction in 2015, completed in January 2025. The rebuilt Terminal C, a 120,000 square metre facility, consolidated the former Terminals C and D into a single modern hub for Delta Air Lines.

LaGuardia recorded 33.5 million passengers in 2024, its highest total since before the pandemic. Delta and American Airlines together account for roughly 63 percent of traffic. The airport operates under a federal slot program that limits daily flight operations, which contributes to high load factors and frequent congestion.