LaGuardia Airport should be fully operational later on Thursday now that repairs to the runway damaged in the fatal crash there on Sunday night have been completed, said Kathryn Garcia, the executive director of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.
The runway reopened just before 10 a.m. Thursday, said a spokesman for the Port Authority, which operates LaGuardia and the two other major airports serving New York City — Kennedy International in Queens and Newark Liberty International in New Jersey.
The LaGuardia runway had been closed since an Air Canada jet arriving from Montreal crashed into a fire truck just after landing, killing the plane’s two pilots and injuring dozens of passengers. The extended closure of the runway left the airport, one of America’s busiest, operating at about half of its usual capacity and contributed to flight delays that averaged nearly three hours on Thursday morning.
The wreckage of the plane and truck stayed at the scene while investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board inspected it. Workers hauled away the overturned truck and towed the destroyed plane to an American Airlines hangar on Wednesday, the Port Authority spokesman said.
“Since the removal of the plane and truck late Wednesday, the runway and associated infrastructure has been repaired, inspected and confirmed to meet F.A.A. regulations for safe operation,” the spokesman said.
Ms. Garcia spoke Thursday morning at a gathering in Manhattan hosted by the New York Building Congress, which promotes the construction industry in the metropolitan region.
Patrick McGeehan is a Times reporter who covers the economy of New York City and its airports and other transportation hubs.
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