Thomas Aloi, 30
Senior project manager at Holt Construction
For the past five years, Thomas Aloi has had a front-row seat to one of the city’s thorniest construction projects: LaGuardia Airport’s new terminals.
The Staten Island native started on LaGuardia in 2018, back when the Port Authority began demolishing the old Terminal B, a cramped structure built in 1964. At the time, Holt and the other crews on the site were working on the new Terminal B headhouse, which opened to the public in June 2020. They worked through the height of the pandemic and quickly started putting up the new Terminal C, which opened in June 2022. Aloi oversaw the buildouts of shops, restaurants and upscale lounges for various airlines, including the large Delta Sky Lounge in Terminal B.
Working on a sprawling construction site through the pandemic years 2020 and 2021 was hard, Aloi said, as crews not only navigated COVID mitigation measures but also managed supplies, appliances and finishes amid an unprecedented crunch in the supply chain.
“It was very challenging to complete the program during the pandemic,” said Aloi. “Risk management and getting everyone to come together and complete the project on time and under budget was a big challenge, but we did it. A lot of the lessons that we learned about mitigations for the pandemic on the first headhouse program we implemented into the project going forward.”
Now he’s working on Terminal 4 at John F. Kennedy International Airport, overseeing lounges, retail and restrooms.
Aloi, who grew up and still lives in the Woodrow section of Staten Island, got into the industry because his father — also Thomas Aloi — is the director of engineering at Hines. The younger Aloi earned an associate’s degree in electrical engineering at the College of Staten Island, but has never gotten around to finishing his bachelor’s.
“I pursued more school while I was working, and I just never finished because my career took off,” he explained.
Aside from an internship at AKF Group during his undergrad years, he’s been at Holt for eight years — his entire career. When he’s not building airports, Aloi says he likes to watch the Mets and the Knicks.
