Introduction

LaGuardia Airport (KLGA) is a civil airport serving the New York metropolitan area with a yearly average of 32 million passengers. It is the third busiest airport in New York and the 21st in the United States.

The spark that kindled the urge to build an airport for commercial operations was a TWA plane ticket to Newark with "New York" on it, driving Mayor La Guardia insane. 

Initially, the City considered simply upgrading the existing North Beach Airport from a few years prior, but it needed to be bigger for the plans they had in mind, which led to ambitious landfill plans. Construction work started in 1937, and it required moving the landfill from Rikers Island, along with a garbage dump, onto a metal reinforcing framework, which still causes magnetic interference on the aircraft compasses to this day. 

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American Airlines, which had accepted Mayor La Guardia's offer to start a trial program on Floyd Bennett Field and also played a pivotal role in the airport's development, received extra real estate during the airport's first year, with four hangars, which was unheard of at the time. 

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The airport opened in 1939 as New York Municipal Airport, costing 23 million dollars to the City and transforming the once small North Beach Airport into a 220-hectare facility. The first years were met with skepticism from the locals, some even considering it a waste of money, but the concept of air travel has quickly proven to be fascinating to the New Yorkers, who would pay a dime to watch airplanes take off and land, bringing a quarter of a million USD per year alone.

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The airport's success went much further than falling into the grace of many plane spotters. Many airlines embraced it instead of Newark, much to La Guardia's contempt. The five largest airlines in the United States at the time wanted to operate there even before the construction work was done.

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While the airport was rather large for the late 30s standards of which it was built, overcrowding was already becoming a problem in 1968, with heavy fees for general aviation aircraft. By 1984, things were dire to the point the administration had to set up a "perimeter rule," banning nonstop flights to cities more than 2,400 km away, even though Denver was the only destination from LGA that was "violating" such rule, and an exception was made. FAA then added a limit to the number of flights and types of aircraft that could operate out of the airport.

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Restrictions aside, traffic figures grew, with hour-long delays in the late 90s. The "saving grace" was not a new FAA slot restriction but the terrorist attacks of 9/11/2001, which significantly killed the demand for air travel in the region and temporarily "fixed" the overcrowding. 

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In April 2010, plans were made to create a unified and modern airport plan. The $2.4 billion project would demolish the existing central terminal building and its four concourses, garage, and hangar. The demolition would be done in phases so that operations could be maintained throughout the project.

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Five years later, a $4 billion plan was announced, encompassing an entire rebuild of the terminals as one contiguous building with terminal bridges connecting them. The original structure would have to be entirely demolished.

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Construction work started in 2016 and reached near completion in late 2022 thanks to the COVID pandemic, which allowed Delta's Terminal D construction process to be fast-tracked and finished in record time. The end result was hailed by the media as an "actually good airport," the transformation of an "intricately dressed set of an apocalypse film", in the words of The Atlantic's Ian Bogost, into one of the best in the country. A billion-dollar redemption story in the making!

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It's a hub for American Airlines and Delta Air Lines. Air Canada, Air Canada Express, Frontier, JetBlue, Southwest Airlines, Spirit, United Airlines, and United Express also serve it.

MK Studios' rendition promises an accurate LGA with custom ground textures, detailed terminal interiors, working VDGS, custom satellite imagery, realistic night lighting, precise elevation data based on LiDAR scans, custom points of interest around the airport, and more.

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Installation

The scenery is distributed via SimMarket and features a one-click install.

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First Impressions

Start spreading the news, because I'm leaving today on a Delta Air Lines Boeing 737-900 to check out MK Studios' LaGuardia for the first time. If I can make it there, I can make it anywhere, after all (definitely not because New York is a particularly demanding area in the simulator, and being able to fly smoothly into any NYC region airport is a feat and a half for your hardware). 

Performance was my biggest concern throughout the entire 80-minute hop from Detroit. My computer never took too kindly to JFK, which is even somewhat sparser (in terms of object density) than LGA, and it could be that I was about to witness a similarly lovely slideshow in the brand-new product. 

New York City is easily where my computer chugs the most in Microsoft Flight Simulator. It was no different this time, especially as I got closer to runway 22: from an already suboptimal 26 fps to 18-19, albeit consistent rather than stuttery, which is a plus as it didn't hinder my landing in any way, shape, or form. Slightly dented performance aside, I was finally back in La Guardia after so many years (the last time was in Prepar3d, and the old terminal layout was still in place, if I'm not mistaken). 

Figures aside, LGA didn't look like I remembered from my ancient ESP engine days. The only things that were familiar enough were the considerably short runways, making aim-point touchdowns almost a must. The "third world" trip, as Joe Biden described it in 2014, turned into a trip to the future, with the massive futuristic-looking contiguous building that was at least ten times prettier than the weather at the time. 

The accurate LiDAR elevation data had me going full throttle up a "hill" so that I could park into stand 75. It wouldn't move an inch if the power weren't maxed out, but that's more about PMDG's ground physics than on MKS themselves. However, don't quote me on that. 

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With the airplane safely parked, it was time to whip the drone out and have a proper look at the scenery, scanning every nook and cranny for imperfections that I am happy to say I didn't find. What I did find, though, were many nice angles to take screenshots from. The new LGA is, in fact, a gorgeous airport. 

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Modeling / Texturing

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All in all, the modeling and texturing don't disappoint. There is remarkable consistency across all three terminals, accurately bringing the newly redeemed airport to Microsoft Flight Simulator, securing an easy seat as the best rendition available to date.

Every terminal has its interior, with 3D passengers, accurate signage, basic internal clutter with rubbish bins, washrooms, and many advertisements highlighting the newly inaugurated terminal reconstruction work, as per real life. 

The custom jetways feature individual numbering and design changes depending on which terminal they are connected to, just like its real counterpart, and they look great. The connection with the aircraft is solid, with no visible gaps. The weathering isn't quite present, but one would hope so, given how new most of the jetways are. 

The custom ground clutter matches each terminal's operators. The Delta terminals are full of Delta-branded trolleys and baggage carts, JetBlue has its clutter, etc. There's clutter for days, and none of it is default, which is undoubtedly a good thing and further evidence of their attention to detail. 

In a very accurate fashion to the region's weather, the scenery also features a considerable amount of snowplow clutter, which is extremely important in keeping the airport operational during snowfall days. 

Ground markings and overall signaling are up to the expected standard, making it easy to follow taxi instructions when flying online. The airport's ground layout is very simple to boot, which also helps. 

LaGuardia is a densely packed airport in a relatively small area for its traffic figures, and anything misplaced or absent would stick out like a sore thumb. Fortunately, there are no oddities to speak of. 

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Night Lighting 

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The new LaGuardia is pretty, but it's even prettier in the dark, where the detail truly shines: given its see-through qualities, the nocturnal airside experience at the terminals is very picturesque, making for very lovely screenshots at night (something that generally can't be said about many airports in MSFS, as night-time typically looks a bit dull). 

Like New York City, LaGuardia never sleeps, shining brighter than the day. The jetway door shines even brighter, making for amazing reflections on the fuselage. There is never a dull day in the Big Apple. 

The new terminal's modern design language becomes much more pronounced at night, and it shows. The terminal surface's reflective PBR creates very realistic-looking reflections of the many terminal bridges around, offering endless screenshot possibilities. 

The ground lighting is also solid, making for a consistently well-lit package. 

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Performance

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My Setup: 32 GB RAM, Ryzen 7 3700X, Nvidia RTX 3080 10 GB, 2 TB SSD (non-NVMe). 

The performance is surprisingly good while parked at the stand, even for New York standards. It is even more so if you uninstall the nool VDGS module and delete the included nool VDGS folder, yielding an extra 8-10 fps and bringing the figures to very impressive standards. With my system, I saw an average of 27-30 (I lock my frames to 30 fps). 

Things change when you fly into the airport or taxi out to the runway, where the inevitable photogrammetry dent punishes the framerate a bit. I saw my 25+ average dip to 19-21, and not once did it touch the old ballpark again. It's important to remember that it's not the developer's fault per se, as even the default LGA doesn't run well. The Big Apple is just that tough to run.

The "New York syndrome" only plagues old hardware, though. Modern CPUs should be fine (something like a 5800X3D or better). My 3700X, on the other hand, is just not powerful enough to keep a consistent framerate.

While the framerate might be low at times, the experience isn't stuttery, meaning it's still possible to land just fine without being hindered by a PowerPoint experience. I never have the same luck with the neighboring airport.

To sum up, it is a bit more demanding than the average airport out there, mostly due to the nature of the region, but it isn't what I would call unplayable by any means. I flew into it multiple times with different weather conditions, and no stutters were observed (just a slightly lower-than-usual framerate).

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Conclusion

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Retailing for $17.00, not recommending it would be a crime. After all, it is the best rendition of LaGuardia currently available for the simulator, and you get a lot of bang for the buck regarding detail and accuracy. For that price tag, even the minor inconvenience of being a New York City airport and its inherent performance impact becomes just a minor detail. 

Overall, MK Studios has done a solid job at reproducing the airport, with consistent modeling throughout, accurately placed custom ground clutter, great ground service equipment, custom interiors everywhere with 3D passengers, and so on. 

Their recent sceneries show great evolution and attention to detail compared to the first ones from two, three years ago. They have been solidly delivering for a while now, and LGA is no different.

A huge thank you to MK Studios for providing us with a review copy!

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