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France Media Agency
“Are we going to need airports? Yes, we’re going to need airports, ”Governor Andrew Cuomo said, opening the new Terminal B at Queens Airport which will open to the public on Saturday.
“The planes will fly, the cars will roll, the trains too, life continues post-COVID”, continued the elected Democrat, who advocates a revival of large infrastructure projects in the face of the unprecedented recession since the 1930s hitting the United States.
“There is no doubt that air travel will recover, the question is not ‘if’ but ‘when'”, also assured Rick Cotton, executive director of Port Authority, the public body which manages the airports in the New York area.
He praised the size of the new terminal – 50% larger than the old one -, improved cleaning operations and dispensers of hydroalcoholic gel in quantity as measures that will ensure “the safety and health of passengers in the post world. -Covid ”.
“We needed this,” Cuomo said, as New York City has been hit hard by the pandemic to which more than 21,000 people have died. “We needed to see the light at the end of the tunnel […], need to see New York up, shining, need to remember it’s a great place ”.
PHOTO TIMOTHY A. CLARY, FRANCE-PRESSE AGENCY
Andrew Cuomo
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Begun in 2015 and slated for completion in a year and a half, the modernization of La Guardia, at a total cost of $ 8 billion, is one of the governor’s emblematic projects.
La Guardia, opened in 1939, was described as a “third world” airport by Joe Biden, then vice-president, when the project was launched in 2015.
The airport saw some 30 million passengers pass in 2018, mainly on domestic flights.
The airline industry has contracted drastically due to containment measures due to the coronavirus, forcing large American companies like United to reduce their flights by 90%.
In April, at the height of the epidemic, global traffic “hit rock bottom”, down 94% from last year, according to the International Air Transport Association (Iata). It predicts a drop of more than half of the sector’s revenues in 2020.
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