Ex-LaGuardia manager named Port Authority aviation chief

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey Wednesday promoted its Aviation Division's interim director, a former Army helicopter pilot with nearly 30 years' tenure, to the post permanently, officials said.

Thomas L. Bosco, a U.S. Military Academy graduate, previously was LaGuardia Airport's general manager. He became interim director of the Port Authority's aviation division in July 2013, when Susan Baer left.

The authority also promoted another long-serving employee, Huntley A. Lawrence, to the division's deputy director's post from an interim job. In 2011, Lawrence, a pilot, became general manager for New Jersey's airports.

Bosco, 56, who received a Bronze Star for his service during Operation Desert Storm/Shield, said in an interview that his new post was a "dream job," despite criticism that the authority's airports -- among the world's busiest -- are substandard.

Just last month, Vice President Joe Biden said LaGuardia resembled a Third World country's airport.

"You know the vice president isn't wrong, but he neglected to mention that we do have a $3.6 billion redevelopment program underway that will replace the 50-year-old Central Terminal at LaGuardia and replace aging infrastructure," Bosco said. The project's developer should be chosen this spring.

In addition to ensuring the airports -- owned and run by the authority, but whose flight paths and control towers are managed by the Federal Aviation Administration -- continue driving the regional economy, Bosco will oversee noise studies at LaGuardia and Kennedy airports. The research was ordered last year by Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo.

The authority, in as soon as a week, will issue "a comprehensive program for aircraft noise mitigation and for community participation," he said.