This explains a lot! I always wondered why LaGuardia never had any long-haul flights.
If an airport has a perimeter rule, it means that there is a certain distance from that airport beyond which flights are not allowed to go. […] there are two airports that have perimeter rules in the US: New York/LaGuardia and Washington/National. Before we get into the details, the first question many people ask is … why?
Washington had a brand new airport at Dulles and New York had one at Idlewild (later to be JFK). The problem was that nobody wanted to use them since both National and LaGuardia, the main airports at the time, were more convenient and preferred by customers. So, a perimeter rule was enacted to continue to allow short haul flights at the old airports but requiring longer haul and most international flights to use the new one. Over the years, the perimeter rule became the political rule as politicians kept expanding it so their home airport would be included.
National now has a 1,250 mile limit for all flights. That was not the original number, but it now conveniently includes Dallas/Ft Worth at 1,192 miles and Houston/Intercontinental at 1,208 miles.
As for LaGuardia, the situation is a little different. They also saw their rule pushed further and further to allow points in Texas – Dallas/Ft Worth is 1389 miles and Houston/Intercontinental is 1,416 miles – but even more blatant is the exemption of all flights to Denver.
Click through to the source above for more details and random exemptions to this ridiculous rule.
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