LaGuardia Airport just won a customer satisfaction award. Yes, really.
The much-maligned Queens airport that President Joe Biden notoriously compared to “some Third World country” in 2014 earned the 2023 Airport Service Quality Award (ASQ) for hubs serving 25 to 40 million passengers per year.
The recognition follows the $8 billion, six-year redevelopment of the airport, which included massive soup-to-nuts rebuilds of its once-debilitated terminals.
Airport executives tied the award directly to the renovations, noting that the ASQ survey was conducted during the first full year that all of the new facilities were completed and in use.
“Taking LaGuardia Airport from worst to best is now more than just an aspiration, it’s an accomplishment that passengers have now resoundingly recognized,” Port Authority Executive Director Rick Cotton said in a written statement. “When we started out on our $8 billion transformation of LaGuardia, few believed we could create the world-class airport our region deserves. But the ASQ award proves that seeing is believing.”
The award also comes as LGA recorded its busiest year on record, having served a new high of 32.4 million passengers in 2023, a 4% jump from its previous peak in 2019.
“The ASQ award is a testament to the hard work and dedication of not only those who designed and built the new airport, but to those providing exceptional service each and every day,” said Suzette Noble, chief executive of LaGuardia Gateway Partners, the developer and manager of Terminal B.
The award program is the product of a partnership between the Airports Council International, a trade organization representing thousands of airports, and travel technology company Amadeus. “ASQ’s approach is anchored in live research conducted through surveys administered directly to travelers at the airport, capturing their satisfaction levels on the very day of travel,” according to a press release announcing the award.
LGA shares the award in the 25 to 40 million passenger category with Minneapolis–Saint Paul International Airport. Among larger airports that serve more than 40 million passengers each year, Dallas Fort Worth International Airport, Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport and Toronto Pearson International Airport earned this year’s distinctions.
Because of decades of disinvestment, LaGuardia routinely ranked as one of the worst U.S. airports to travel through before former Gov. Andrew Cuomo launched the needed airport overhaul in 2015. The airport has gained in popularity in recent years as customers began to reap the rewards of the renovations, including a 10 slot-jump in last year’s J.D. Power rankings.
“LaGuardia’s days as a punchline for late night comedy writers and for jokes [are] now finally over,” Cotton said inside the airport announcing the award. “LaGuardia used to come in last — dead last — year after year after year in every single passenger survey. It was universally regarded as the worst airport in the country. It was the airport everyone loved to hate. But no longer. Today’s results are definitive: LaGuardia Airport has officially transformed from worst to best.”
Jack Grieve , 2024-03-14 19:49:00
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