Traveling into and out of New York City’s LaGuardia Airport regularly has likely contributed to my unwelcome discovery of gray hair strands at the tender age of 22. I frequently lament the fact that both American and international tourists who have likely waited their entire lives to visit New York City have to enter via the cesspit, with only the Manhattan skyline within eyesight as a promise that you didn’t accidentally buy a ticket to a third-world country that just underwent a civil war that choked off funding to the maintenance of its infrastructure.
This morning, the FAA halted flights into LaGuardia because of the insufficient number of staff due to the government shutdown. Too many workers were calling off sick, and later, the FAA began to augment staff, reroute traffic, and increase spacing between aircraft, warning passengers and the public that there will be major delays.
If you’ve never traveled through LaGuardia on a regular day, I consider Joe Biden’s review of it from a 2014 speech about American infrastructure to be evergreen:
Biden said that if one blindfolded a person and took them to Hong Kong’s airport and asked where they were, they would reply: “This must be America, it’s a modern airport.” On the other hand, he said, “if I took you and blindfolded you and took you to LaGuardia Airport in New York you must think, ‘I must be in some third world country.’”
In October 2017, I swimmingly traveled through Beirut’s airport despite there being concrete barriers throughout the city that were still riddled with bullets from past conflict and electricity lasting for four-hour intervals throughout the day in Lebanese homes. But if I blindfolded you and took you to Beirut’s airport, you’d think you’re in a country whose last civil war ended in 1865. If Joe Biden blindfolded you and took you to LaGuardia, you’d likely agree with him.
With today’s average delays lasting 86 minutes, one might ask: What changed?