![\"Port](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/20240320_112012.jpg\" "\\"Long-time")
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Port Authority executive director Rick Cotton at the Oculus on March 20, 2024.<\/p>\n
File Photo by Ben Brachfeld<\/p>\n
Rick Cotton, who has led the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey<\/a> for nearly a decade, announced on Monday that he will retire come January.\n<\/p>\n Cotton, 81, has been Port Authority\u2019s executive director since 2017 \u2014 serving the longest of anyone in that position since the 1940s, according to the agency. During his tenure, Cotton has overseen major infrastructure projects at all three New York City-area airports, including the rebuilding of LaGuardia Airport;<\/a> the construction of a new terminal at Newark Liberty International Airport<\/a>; and the start of redevelopment at John F. Kennedy International Airport<\/a>.<\/p>\n His successor will be revealed \u201cin due course,\u201d and will work with Cotton on transitioning into the role, the agency said.\n<\/p>\n Cotton, in a statement, said that he and Port Authority Chair Kevin O\u2019Toole have together made \u201chistoric progress\u201d during their tenures toward building \u201cworld-class\u201d transportation infrastructure for the region.<\/p>\n \u201cSince 2017, I have devoted all my energy to this profoundly important work. It has been enormously rewarding \u2014 and exhausting. But nothing is forever,\u201d he said. \u201cWith the immense progress that we have made and the completion last week of our proposed new 10-year capital plan \u2014 which will fund the agency\u2019s ambitious agenda through 2035 \u2014 it is simply time to hand over the reins, and I will do so in January.\u201d<\/p>\n Cotton was appointed by former Gov. Andrew Cuomo and re-appointed by current Gov. Kathy Hochul when she took office in 2021.\n<\/p>\n \u201cRick took on one of the toughest public-service jobs in America and delivered extraordinary results,\u201d Hochul said in a statement. \u201cHis leadership rebuilt public confidence in our capacity to deliver world-class infrastructure. The Port Authority today is stronger and more resilient than ever, and his impact will be felt for generations.\u201d<\/p>\n Under Cotton\u2019s leadership, the agency undertook a $50 billion effort to modernize the region\u2019s three airports. That includes the completed $8 billion rebuild of LaGuardia Airport, the opening of Liberty\u2019s new Terminal A, and the $19 billion reconstruction of JFK\u2019s Terminals 1 through 6.<\/p>\n LaGuardia \u2014 once considered one of the country\u2019s worst airports before its reconstruction, dubbed by then-Vice President Joe Biden in 2014 as a \u201cthird world\u201d facility \u2014<\/a>\u00a0was named the<\/a> best airport in America this year by Forbes Magazine in March.<\/a><\/p>\n Cotton also jump-started the overhaul of the dilapidated Midtown Bus Terminal \u2014 commonly known as the Port Authority Bus Terminal. The $10 billion project broke ground in May.\n<\/p>\n Furthermore, Cotton counts improving the agency\u2019s efficiency, transparency, internal governance, and collaboration between the two states that co-run it among the accomplishments of his tenure.<\/p>\n He also oversaw the agency during the COVID-19 pandemic \u2014 a time when air travel plummeted, and airlines suffered major losses.\n<\/p>\n Carlo Scissura, president and CEO of the New York Building Congress, praised Cotton as building more of the metropolitan area than \u201cmost human beings, short of Robert Moses.\u201d\n<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s a titan of our industry, an infrastructure czar, and, personally, a mentor to me,\u201d Scissura said in a statement. \u201cHe leaves behind a legacy of taking our airports from worst to first, securing our shores, and building a better-connected Port Authority region.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Port Authority executive director Rick Cotton at the Oculus on March 20, 2024. File Photo by Ben Brachfeld…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":401821,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5122],"tags":[5229,5297,190172,12094,175803,190173,405,403,140649,5226,5225,5228,5227,27411,190135,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-401820","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-andrew-cuomo","10":"tag-carlo-scissura","11":"tag-gov-kathy-hochul","12":"tag-john-f-kennedy-international-airport","13":"tag-midtown-bus-terminal","14":"tag-new-york","15":"tag-new-york-city","16":"tag-newark-liberty-international-airport","17":"tag-newyork","18":"tag-newyorkcity","19":"tag-ny","20":"tag-nyc","21":"tag-port-authority","22":"tag-rick-cotton","23":"tag-united-states","24":"tag-united-states-of-america","25":"tag-unitedstates","26":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","27":"tag-us","28":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115606016350748343","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/401820","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=401820"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/401820\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/401821"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=401820"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=401820"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=401820"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}