Govt shortchanged NY airports: study

[NEW YORK] The New York area's three major airports are getting short-changed by the US government, according to a study scheduled to be released yesterday by a group that advocates more investment in the facilities.

Newark Liberty International, LaGuardia and John F Kennedy International ranked near the bottom of a survey of annual construction grants allocated to 369 airports by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), according to the Global Gateway Alliance.

LaGuardia, which vice-president Joe Biden likened to a facility in a third-world country, got US$3.8 million in federal Airport Improvement Program grants, according to the survey. The airport, which had almost 13 million departures in 2012, received the same amount as Show Low Regional Airport in Arizona, which had 3,850 departures.