You know I’ve been calling for infrastructure improvements for nearly a decade.   Because our roads, our bridges, our airports, and our railroads are not even able to handle the demands of today- let alone tomorrow.

Way back in the 80’s, we built a new airport in Charlottesville (VA).   For years, the airport was the play toy for the rich, letting the private pilots fly in and out with ease, with very few commercial flights.  (There were 6 a day before I joined the airport authority.)   But, the University of Virginia was in town, and there were plenty of folks [like me] traveling.   So, we invited Continental, United, Ransom (Allegheny Commuter) and American to join Piedmont as carrier authorities.   And, then, a local pilot decided to offer a series of flights to Dulles and National airports (Waring Aviation).   Now, the new airport was justified.   Which also required a second taxiway.   (I already reported this new airport was vital during a snowstorm where we were the only airport opened on the East Coast.)

But, that’s very different than a major airport like LaGuardia. Just the other day, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey (normally just called the Port Authority) announced it will rebuild a new LaGuardia Airport.  (By the way, the Port Authority is the largest ‘non-government’ governmental entity in the US, with a budget of about $ 8 billion; as a comparison, the US Postal Service is a mere $ 5.5 billion).

Yet, this expense and effort will make things prettier at LaGuardia- but not really any better.  Sure, the various terminals of the airport will coalesce into one (the airport has grown by adding buildings and extending distance over the decades since it first opened in 1939).  And, there’ll be tram and rail (and maybe ferry) links.   All good.  All needed.   After all, more than 2% of all flights in the US use LaGuardia- along with 2.5% of the delayed departures and 2.8% of the delayed arrivals.

But, let us not forget that LaGuardia sends airplanes into the same air space that is used by Kennedy (the former Idlewild) and Newark airports.   So, there won’t be a slew of more flights, or any more potential space between flights as a result of any construction of new buildings.

But, there will be more taxiways- supposedly reducing the gate delays (that are, indeed, rampant at LaGuardia).  But, those planes will still have to queue up to take off at one of the two runways.   And, still have to wait for the skies to have sufficient space to afford a plane to find a way nestle into the air.   Which explains why more than ¼ of all the arrivals are at least 15 minutes late (the 3^rd worst among major US airports) and almost ¼ of the departures were that late (but only the 10^th worst among airports) at LaGuardia.

You see, the real issue for LaGuardia is the airspace congestion and the runway capacity.  Neither of which is being addressed by this monstrously large new project.  This new project is akin to building 20 new entrance ramps onto the overcrowded stretch of interstate highways- it looks like an improvement, but the end result is not going to make travel any better.

This same rule applies to your own business.   Make sure any redesigns you plan are aimed at removing the true bottlenecks in your process or delivery stream-  because that is what counts for good customer service.

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