Overview
- Port Authority crews discovered a sinkhole near Runway 4/22 during a daily inspection on Wednesday, and airport officials immediately shut that runway while emergency construction and engineering teams began repairs.
- With Runway 4/22 out of service all takeoffs and landings shifted to Runway 13/31, sharply cutting LaGuardia’s throughput and triggering hundreds of flight delays and cancellations tracked by FlightAware.
- The FAA slowed arrivals and imposed ground delays as storm forecasts and an evening ground stop compounded congestion and made recovery and repair work more difficult.
- Investigators have not reached a definitive cause and are examining several possibilities, including nearby tunneling for a fuel line; the Port Authority now says it expects the runway to reopen before Friday operations begin.
- LaGuardia has only two runways and sits on reclaimed, loosely packed ground, which raises subsurface instability risks and helps explain why even a short closure can leave travelers stranded and ripple across the region’s air traffic.