Defunct Queens airports you’ve never heard of

JFK used to be Idlewild. LaGuardia was North Beach Airport, and before that, Glenn H. Curtiss Airport.

But predating both was little Flushing Airport, just a mile from where LaGuardia would be built (as this 1960s-era Texaco road map reveals).

“Flushing Airport was opened in 1927 as Speed’s Airport (named for former owner Anthony “Speed” Hanzlick),” states airfields-freeman.com. “It became the busiest airport in New York City for a time.”

Once LaGuardia hit the scene, four-runway Flushing lost traffic. In the 1960s and 1970s, it was used for blimps. It shut down in 1984.

A similar fate befell Holmes Airport, launched in 1929 by a real estate developer on 220 acres in Jackson Heights.

Holmes was busy—for a time. Eastern scheduled flights to Miami; bizarre promotions offered $1 short flights.

But then ground broke for LaGuardia. Holmes’ owners tried to get a court injunction to stop construction.

It didn’t work. LaGuardia opened in 1939; Holmes closed in 1940. The Bulova Watch Factory was built on the site.

Tags: airports in Queens, decommissioned airports in NYC, Flushing Airport, Holmes Airport, Idlewild Airport, LaGuardia Airport history, vintage maps NYC, vintage postcards NYC