--- title: Joe Biden: LaGuardia Airport Like Some Third World country description: Vice President takes a jab at New York City's second-largest airport while making the case for infrastructure investment canonical: https://time.com/5318/joe-biden-laguardia-airport/ author: Nate Rawlings article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-02-07T12:17:26.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-21T06:19:45.702Z article:section: Politics og:title: Joe Biden: LaGuardia Airport Like Some Third World country og:description: Vice President takes a jab at New York City's second-largest airport while making the case for infrastructure investment og:url: https://time.com/5318/joe-biden-laguardia-airport/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Joe Biden: LaGuardia Airport Like Some Third World country twitter:description: Vice President takes a jab at New York City's second-largest airport while making the case for infrastructure investment twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Joe Biden Says NYC Airport Like 'Some 3rd-World Country' by [Nate Rawlings](https://time.com/author/nate-rawlings/) ## Nate Rawlings Feb 7, 2014 12:17 PM UTC by [Nate Rawlings](https://time.com/author/nate-rawlings/) ## Nate Rawlings Feb 7, 2014 12:17 PM UTC Never one who can be accused of failing to speak his mind, Vice President Joe Biden on Thursday compared LaGuardia Airport in New York to “some third-world country.” During a speech about infrastructure at a Philadelphia train station, Biden said the United States led the world economically for decades because of superior infrastructure but that other countries have leapfrogged the U.S. with major investments while domestic infrastructure has decayed. Biden said that if one blindfolded a person and took them to Hong Kong’s airport and asked where they were, they would reply: “This must be America, it’s a modern airport.” On the other hand, he said, “if I took you and blindfolded you and took you to LaGuardia Airport in New York you must think, ‘I must be in some third world country.'” LaGuardia, the smaller of New York City’s two major airports, has four terminals and several aging buildings that have not been upgraded in decades. The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which operates LaGuardia, is currently investing $3.6 billion to overhaul the airport. See Biden’s comments below: ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5318/joe-biden-laguardia-airport/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5318/joe-biden-laguardia-airport/"},"headline":"Joe Biden Says NYC Airport Like 'Some 3rd-World Country'","datePublished":"2014-02-07T12:17:26.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-21T06:19:45.702Z","description":"Vice President takes a jab at New York City's second-largest airport while making the case for infrastructure investment","url":"https://time.com/5318/joe-biden-laguardia-airport/","keywords":["Infrastructure","Joe Biden","New York City"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Nate Rawlings","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/nate-rawlings/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/infrastructure/","name":"Infrastructure"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5318/joe-biden-laguardia-airport/","name":"Joe Biden Says NYC Airport Like 'Some 3rd-World Country'"}}]}] ```