LaGuardia Flies To Top Of Passengers' Best Airports, Survey Finds

NEW YORK CITY — LaGuardia Airport is officially no longer the worst.

The massively renovated LaGuardia Airport ranked as the "Best Airport of 25 to 40 Million Passengers in North America" in Airport Service Quality's annual passenger survey for 2023.

The survey unveiled Monday is the polar opposite of passengers' sentiments in 2018, when LaGuardia ranked as the worst.

"Taking LaGuardia Airport from worst to best is now more than just an aspiration, it's an accomplishment that passengers have now resoundingly recognized,"

said Port Authority Executive Director Rick Cotton, in a 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 old LaGuardia was infamous for its dingy interiors, which nurtured a vibe "like the intricately dressed set of an apocalypse film," as a writer for the Atlantic put it.

But the oppressive, depressing atmosphere steadily disappeared as officials embarked on a massive $8 billion redevelopment.

Passengers in the redone Terminal B are now greeted by airy, bright spaces and an array of comforts that lifted it from a space that then-Vice President Joe Biden in 2014 derided as "third-world."

The substantial investment appears to have paid off.

The airport's 2023 passenger satisfaction score in the new survey is 20 percent higher than its score in 2018, officials pointed out.