LaGuardia runway closed after sinkhole, flights face delays and cancellations
A sinkhole near LaGuardia’s Runway 4/22 forced a shutdown at one of the airport’s two runways, triggering delays and cancellations across the hub.
A sinkhole near LaGuardia’s Runway 4/22 shut down one of the airport’s two runways Wednesday morning, exposing how quickly a single airfield problem can ripple through a major New York City hub and beyond.
Crews found the hole around 11 a.m. during a daily morning inspection of the airfield, according to airport officials. The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey said the runway was closed immediately while emergency construction and engineering teams moved in to determine the cause and begin repairs. The affected area was near Runway 4/22, the same strip tied to the airport’s most serious recent disaster.
The Federal Aviation Administration said it was slowing flights into LaGuardia because of weather and the sinkhole, and an FAA notice said the runway was expected to remain closed until 6 a.m. ET Thursday. Officials warned that timetable could slip if thunderstorms slowed repair work. Travelers were told to expect delays and cancellations and to check directly with their airlines for the latest flight status information.
The disruption carried outsized consequences because LaGuardia, in Queens, runs on just two runways. Losing one immediately tightens traffic flow, limits arrivals and departures, and can force airlines to juggle gates, crews and aircraft schedules across the network. Even a localized airfield repair can cascade into missed connections and later departures at airports far from New York.
Runway 4/22 also drew scrutiny because it was the runway involved in the March 22 Air Canada Express crash at LaGuardia. In that accident, Jazz Aviation LP flight 646, operating as Air Canada flight 8646 from Montreal, collided with a Port Authority aircraft rescue and firefighting vehicle while landing on Runway 4. The crash killed both pilots and injured dozens of passengers and responders, and it was the airport’s first fatal crash in three decades.
No injuries were reported in the sinkhole incident. The Port Authority said it remained in close communication with airlines and airport partners as conditions evolved, but the shutdown underscored a broader vulnerability at one of the country’s busiest urban airports: with so little runway redundancy, maintenance trouble can quickly become a national travel problem.
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