Author: Julia Lauria-Blum

Last October, when I booked a red-eye flight home for my daughter Maggie, departing out of LAX and bound for JFK on December 23rd, I did so with a bit of trepidation. Any concern that I had was not so much based on the fact that the week leading into and around the Christmas and New Year holidays is the busiest time of the year for air travel, but rather, based upon the spontaneous occurrence of some random ‘weather event’ in the northeast creating a ‘perfect storm’ (or domino effect) for scheduled air travel and at airports throughout the country.…

Providing Aviation Services to Private and General Aviation The National Air Transportation Association (NATA) is the leading organization representing aviation service businesses such as FBOs (Fixed-Base Operators), charter providers, aircraft management companies, maintenance and repair organizations, flight training, and airline service companies. NATA classifies FBOs (the acronym for Fixed-Base Operators) as the primary service providers to general aviation aircraft operators. An FBO is defined as a business operating under a lease with an airport-owning authority that dispenses aviation fuel and may also provide a wide array of support services to aviation customers. The FBO industry in the United States comprises…

There’s a quote that comes up every so often that says, ‘cannot see the forest for the trees.’ For me, it means that when someone is solely focused on a singular or inconsequential detail, they are so preoccupied with it that they are missing the larger picture in front of them. In this day and age of information overload, distracting technology, difficulty comprehending current events, and packed schedules and deadlines, it’s pretty easy to become sidetracked and lost in the woods without even knowing how you got there. As the year 2023 concludes and winter begins to settle in, a…

LaGuardia Gateway Partners CEO, Suzette Noble, Discusses Connecting Terminal B Guests to an Exceptional Airport Experience Whether a hotel or resort, a restaurant or lounge, a large public venue, a retail outlet, or even a busy transportation hub such as an airport, the experience that a guest values the most and chooses to revisit time and again is one of hospitality, an excellent first impression, convenience, security, aesthetics, and the quality of services provided. Suzette Noble, a Vantage Airport Group Senior Executive and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of LaGuardia Gateway Partners (LGP), knows this to be true. LGP is the…

While I have always gravitated toward airplanes as my go-to mode of transportation for long-distance travel, there’s nothing I love more than the adventure of a good old-fashioned road trip. My passion for road trips began as a child, on family excursions along the Eastern Seaboard and across the Chesapeake Bay to Williamsburg. During winter recess, we would hit the road at dawn and head down I-95 to Florida. Some of my fondest road trip memories are those that took place in the family’s beloved Ford Country Squire station wagon. It had a champagne gold exterior, trimmed with simulated wood…

The aviation industry has advanced from pioneering first flights in wood and canvas-bodied biplanes to flying faster, further, and more efficiently in aircraft that facilitate the transport and mobility of people, as well as access to goods, services, jobs, and more. The tsunami created by the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 impacted the aviation industry in many ways, dealing a sweeping financial blow and revenue loss to airlines and airports in the billions of dollars. In 2021, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) reported that air passenger travel was reduced by slightly over 60% compared to 2019 and that international and…

The local airport community has always been extremely generous when donating time and money to worthy causes at our airports and within the surrounding communities. This past September, the Airport Community Golf Classic (ACGC), which was founded to assist local airport and aviation-related associations with fundraising efforts, hosted its inaugural Golf Classic fundraiser, and all proceeds from this very successful event were distributed to the JFK Air Cargo Association, the Council of Airline Maintenance Managers (CALMM), and the Aviation High School Education Foundation. On Friday, November 3, the JFK Air Cargo Association presented a check in the amount of $9,000…

Welcome to Metropolitan Airport News, ‘Editors Notebook’. I initially intended my first letter to be about my love of road trips and those that have taken me and my family to just about every part of our vast and magnificently diverse country, including a journey my husband and I took across the U.S.A. this past summer by rail, air, and automobile. But I am pre-empting the story of my road trip journey with a topic that doesn’t have much to do with trains, planes, and automobiles, but rather about community, both the metropolitan airport community and, more specifically, the JFK…

When the Port Authority of NY & NJ first began its multi-billion-dollar redevelopment projects at New York metropolitan airports, beginning in 2016 with its groundbreaking at LaGuardia Airport, community outreach was a key element of the agenda at its inception. But before this redevelopment and before this community outreach effort began, many in the community around LaGuardia did not consider the Port Authority to be present. That has taken a complete 180-degree turn over the last six years since the launch of the Port Authority’s airport redevelopment community outreach initiatives and the opening of the LaGuardia Community Outreach Office, the…

Behind every great aviation museum is a great curatorial staff and its volunteers. On Thursday, September 14, the curatorial staff and dedicated team of restoration volunteers at the Cradle of Aviation Museum knocked the ball out of the park at the highly anticipated roll-out and ribbon-cutting ceremony of the newly restored ‘Felix 101’ F-14D Tomcat, now permanently displayed at F14 Tomcat Plaza, outside of the entrance to the Cradle of Aviation Museum in Garden City, New York. A large crowd of spectators, museum officials, and aviation enthusiasts gathered before the sleek, twin-engine, swept-wing fighter at its inauguration on this sparkling,…