LaGuardia Airport is a civil airport in East Elmhurst, Queens, New York City. Covering , the facility was established in 1929 and began operating as a public airport in 1939. It is named after former New York City mayor Fiorello La Guardia. The airport primarily accommodates airline service to domestic (and limited international) destinations. , it was the third-busiest airport in the New York metropolitan area, behind Kennedy and Newark airports, and the twenty-first busiest in the United States by passenger volume. The airport is located directly to the north of the Grand Central Parkway, the airport's primary access highway. While the airport is a hub for both American Airlines and Delta Air Lines, commercial service is strictly governed by unique regulations including a curfew, a slot system, and a "perimeter rule" prohibiting most non-stop flights to or from destinations greater than . Throughout the 2000s and 2010s, LaGuardia was notable for having obsolete and dirty facilities, inefficient air operations, and poor customer service metrics. Responding to these criticisms, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey (PANYNJ) in 2015 announced a multibillion-dollar reconstruction of the airport's passenger infrastructure, which is expected to be complete by 2025. History Original site Prior to human development, the coastlines of Bowery Bay and Flushing Bay converged at a natural point that comprised the eventual northern shoreline of Newtown, Queens. By 1857 the area partially contained the estate of Benjamin Pike Jr., which was soon purchased and consolidated with other property by William Steinway. In June 1886, Steinway opened a summer resort development known as Bowery Bay Beach on the peninsula. Originally featuring a bathing pavilion, beach, lawns, and boathouse, the resort was renamed North Beach and later expanded with the addition of Gala Amusement Park. By the turn of the century, North Beach's German-influenced development drew comparisons to Brooklyn's Coney Island. Its fortunes would soon turn, however, as Prohibition in the United States and war-related anti-German sentiment presented significant challenges to the resort's profitability. These factors, combined with increased industrialization and pollution of the Queens waterfront, made the area untenable as a leisure destination, and it was abandoned at some point in the 1920s. North Beach Airport In April 1929, New York Air Terminals, Inc., announced plans to open a private seaplane base at North Beach later that summer. The facility was christened on June 15 and initially featured a concrete plateau