Each night in northwest Queens, from now through the end of the year, a little known rule takes effect at LaGuardia Airport that ends up sending passengers to the wrong side of the county. Referred to as a curfew, it gives the Port Authority the right to close down LaGuardia to fixed wing air traffic from 12:01am to 6:00am between April 5th and December 31st. Once the clock strikes 12:01am, the Port Authority has the option of closing down the field, denying any late arriving flight from landing.
The curfew rule is not set in stone, and historically exceptions have frequently been made. During times of bad weather that create ground delay programs, the Port Authority may extend the curfew as they deem necessary to allow a bulk of flights to land at their intended destination. When exceptions are not made, however, a diversion is the only choice for an aircraft already en route. Most flights that miss the curfew end up 10 miles away at JFK. At this point, airlines will give passengers the option of either terminate there, or take a bus ride back up to LaGuardia.
@AirlineFlyer Option for a connecting ride back to LGA, with Delta agent standing by at the other end of the jet bridge.
— Albert C. Lee (@albertclee) July 18, 2013
The curfew rules exists for two official reasons. First, noise abatement. Officially, the Port Authority states “To reduce noise, the Port Authority asks the airlines to voluntarily avoid scheduling aircraft operations before 6 a.m. and after 12 midnight at LaGuardia airport. This has a positive effect with regard to aircraft noise at night.” In addition, the curfew also allows heavy maintenance work to be carried out at night without interruption from aircraft operations.
Repositioning flights from JFK to LGA are short, but still not nearly the shortest commercial flight in the world
The next morning, any airline that had a flight divert now has an aircraft out of position. The solution, of course, is to fly the diverted aircraft back from JFK across Queens County. On July 17th, 2013, a fairly large amount of aircraft did not make it to LGA before the curfew was put in place. The next morning saw at least seven flights from JFK back to LGA. The flights, which most likely none of which had passengers, are comically short. A Delta MD-88 took off from JFKs runway 31L, made a left turn, followed by a quick right turn to enter the LGA runway 22 approach. The total flight time was 15 minutes, from 8:10am to 8:25am.
JFK isn’t the only airport in the region to see diversions related to the curfew at LaGuardia. Airlines often choose to divert to an airport where they already have an operation if at all possible in situations such as this. These airports have the ground staff available to process the aircraft, the passengers onboard, and their luggage. It also simplifies the process of refueling the aircraft, as the airline will already have a contract with a fuel supplier. One airline that routinely diverts its LaGuardia-bound aircraft to an airport other than JFK is Spirit Airlines. While that carrier doesn’t fly to any other airports in the NYC Metro Area, they do fly to Atlantic City (ACY), so their diversions usually end up there. After landing, passengers typically have to endure an over two hour long bus ride the rest of the way to LaGuardia.
So what does 2014 have in store for LaGuardia’s curfew? Well for starters, it is currently scheduled to last until December 31st, two months beyond when it ended in 2013. We are also hearing that it may be more strictly enforced this summer, providing fewer exceptions for flights that are held up due to weather. This is due to a major runway construction project that is ongoing at LaGuardia. This project involves lengthening both of the runways on concrete decks over the water. The lengthened runways will accommodate FAA-mandated safety areas at the end of the runways.
(Editor’s Note: This article originally appeared on NYCAviation.com on July 18, 2013. It has been updated and republished with the latest information for 2014. Associate Editor Ben Granucci contributed to this piece.)
