'Total Mayhem' At LaGuardia Means People Are Walking To The Airport

It's a Thursday afternoon in August, which means that the roads in and out of LaGuardia Airport are so congested, frustrated travelers are having to walk to their terminals in hopes of catching their flights.

One passenger named Erica, who sent us the video below, said that the Port Authority shut down Terminals C and D to all traffic except Port Authority buses. She exited her bus and took her chances on foot.

"Everyone on the bus is re-booking their flights. It's just a disaster here, I've never seen anything like this," she said.

Erica added that she did not see any Port Authority employees around either.

"It was total mayhem. There was one cop trying to help, that's about it," she said.

LaGuardia's Twitter account has been very apologetic, but has offered no explanations beyond the notion that it is August, and people want to go on vacation, and the airport is still very much under construction.

“I was in an Uber and we couldn’t get to the terminal because of the traffic so I ended up just walking,” said Digit Murphy, a former professional women’s hockey coach and motivational speaker. “I found this nice other gentleman from Detroit and we made it an adventure.”

After wandering the streets of Queens for awhile, Murphy says she came upon a police officer directing traffic, who instructed her to wait for the next bus. She was still on the Terminal C-bound bus when we spoke, and said she was hoping to eventually make it to Terminal D for her flight to Tampa. “At least I got my steps in,” she said.

[UPDATE / 5:45 p.m.] A spokesperson for the Port Authority said that today is the third-busiest day in the history of LaGuardia airport, and has potential to be the busiest.

That's because most people tend to leave for vacations on Thursdays, and because last night's foul weather in the northeast led to more than 300 cancellations.

"We're telling people to just arrive as early as they can, knowing that there's traffic, try and make enough time to get there," the spokesperson said. "We're hoping this will subside in the next couple of hours."

The problem? "Literally, volume," the spokesperson said. Too many vehicles, not enough space. The Port Authority has deployed 50 percent more police officers to direct traffic, and the New York State Police are directing traffic on the Grand Central Parkway.

We'll update as we learn more. Got a tip? Send it to tips@gothamist.com

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