Comments on: Virgin America’s Impending Growth Spurs LAX Terminal Shifts

By: JamesM

JamesM — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 20:20:30 +0000

Someone I know who works at Alaska mentioned that a company memo stated a tentative date for Alaska moving into Teminal 6 as October 2009. A project manager has been hired. But I still agree with you…we’ll see…

By: CF

CF — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 04:11:35 +0000

JamesM – I heard that as well, but I’ll believe it when I see it. I can see why Alaska would want to do it, because they could theoretically have passengers go through customs and immigration in their own terminal instead of sending them to Bradley as they do now. But, that area is controlled by United, and they can’t even accommodate all their own flights there (United’s Heathrow flight has been clearing at Bradley lately). So, I just don’t know. I would also be surprised if Alaska could get enough gates for what they want.

By: JamesM

JamesM — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 04:08:35 +0000

I’ve heard that Alaska will move to T6. Negotiations are in process now from what I understand.

By: NPS

NPS — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 09:45:03 +0000

It wouldn’t be hard for LAWA to construct an airside connector between T2 and T3… There is room on the 2nd level to do this securely and not interfere with ramp space.

Although that would make sense, hence it won’t happen :)

By: IFlyTWA

IFlyTWA — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 04:56:14 +0000

“working with LAWA on the Phase 2 renovation, which will focus on creating a more guest-facing experience using innovative and sustainable design principles (with a bit of a retro twist back to the terminal’s original 1961 design).”

That would be amazing!!!! I’d love to see a cleaned up T3 with the original 1961 style!

By: DRG

DRG — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 19:20:15 +0000

Too bad all there Virgin brands couldn’t be located in the same space. That would have been neat.

By: David

David — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 06:46:55 +0000

Ooops … sorry that should have said “to a _single_ GATE … 69A … (that just happens to be in another terminal).

-D

By: David

David — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 06:45:15 +0000

I really liked the following from the Airtran press release:

“We outgrew our space in Terminal 3. Our new location in Terminal 6 will be beneficial for our customers, providing a larger space for improved comfort.”

Um … yeah, they outgrew their space. So they’re moving to another GATE (not another terminal) for their 4 flights per day to Atlanta.

LOL …

By: Nicholas Barnard

Nicholas Barnard — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 03:21:51 +0000

I was in T3 connecting between an American Eagle flight to an Alaska flight a few weeks ago. That terminal looks like it hasn’t left the 60s (well if you took out the Starbucks and the screens at the gates.) Architecturally its a nice building, it just needs some new carpet, chairs, and paint.

On the other hand, connecting through LAX is an interesting trip.

By: CF

CF — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 01:52:45 +0000

james – They have cleaned up T3 over the last couple years, but it is still the only terminal that looks like it did back in the day. I kind of like it, to be honest, because of the retro thing.

Margaret – I don’t think VX is much of a threat. They might siphon off some of the price-sensitive traffic in the back and some decent first class traffic, but at last check, they hadn’t really made a huge dent. Of course, we haven’t seen their numbers for a long time, so I’m not sure if things have changed. Also, I don’t think they’re really competing with any smaller carriers. They only overlap with big guys.

OneHotProcessor – Thanks for jumping in. Come on back and comment any time!

eponymous – Good question, and I don’t have an answer. Maybe Virgin Atlantic will open one up in T2 if NW moves over to join DL in T5.