NEW YORK CITY — The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey discovered a sinkhole at LaGuardia Airport near runway 4/22 at about 11 a.m. Wednesday during a daily morning inspection. The runway was shut down immediately and emergency crews were dispatched to begin repairs.
"The runway was immediately shut down, and emergency construction and engineering crews are onsite to determine the cause and complete necessary repairs as quickly and safely as possible," LaGuardia Airport said in a post on X. Port Authority officials said the sinkhole may have been caused by a combination of weather conditions and nearby fuel line tunneling work. There was no timetable for reopening the closed runway as of Thursday morning.
LaGuardia Airport has only two runways for takeoffs and landings. With one runway closed, all flights at the airport are using runway 13/31. Several flights were canceled on Thursday because of the runway closure.
"Travelers should expect delays and cancellations, particularly with forecast thunderstorms expected later today, and are strongly encouraged to check directly with their airlines for the latest flight status information," Port Authority officials said in a post on X. At 3 p.m. EST, the Federal Aviation Administration's airport monitoring service reported that an arrival traffic management program was in effect for arriving air traffic at LaGuardia due to expected thunderstorms, causing some arriving flights to be delayed by an average of 1 hour and 37 minutes. As of 5 p.m. ET, 17% of flights at the airport were canceled and 22% were delayed, according to FlightAware.
LaGuardia is built on land reclaimed from the surrounding bay in the 1930s and sits on an area that once featured homes, hotels and an amusement park. The airport handles domestic travel.
The runway closure occurred nearly two months after an unrelated crash in March in which an Air Canada plane struck a Port Authority fire truck on the same runway, killing two pilots. Airports are increasingly challenged by uneven ground sinking along runways, according to a 2025 report.
According to the United States Geological Survey, sinkholes form when water erodes underground rock or soil, creating cavities beneath the surface, and when enough material weakens below ground, the surface can collapse under added weight from vehicles, buildings or traffic. The USGS says there is no national sinkhole database, and sinkhole-related repairs have cost highway departments and property owners hundreds of millions of dollars nationwide over the past 15 years.
The 2025 report noted that San Francisco International Airport is sinking the fastest, with about 3.5 million square meters of runway experiencing sinking and nearly 14,000 square meters at high risk of structural damage.
Other recent sinkhole incidents in the New York region include a vehicle becoming trapped in a sinkhole on the Long Island Expressway near Exit 49N in Melville on May 15, leading to temporary lane closures and repairs. On May 20, a school bus carrying about 30 children partially fell into a sinkhole near East 180th Street and Bronx Park Avenue in the Bronx, and one passenger suffered minor injuries.