Also — I disagree, I thought the original terminal functions surprisingly well considering the enormous changes in aviation since that building was built. I was expecting it to be a huge hassle and in fact have been very pleased with how usable it is. You can’t have an airport like that in any other climate than Southern California’s — we should be glad we have a unique opportunity to NOT let it become some dead, unimaginative museum! (aka mausoleum)

Any idea what they’re doing there?

So there’s always been some level of military activity at the airport, but it has increased significantly this year. The reason? Los Alamitos has shut their main runway down to be refurbed, so the traffic has been diverted to LGB. I believe it’s training.

Have you seen the 2 new bars in each of the respective double-wides?

I don’t recall seeing that, but it’s entirely possible. The airport has really tried to make the best of an overcrowded situation.

Nicholas Barnard wrote:

This outdoor baggage claim intrigues me. Can we get pictures next time you’re there?

No need to wait, thanks to the internet. There are really 3 claim areas. The southernmost is a straight conveyor that you can see here. It’s sometimes used by JetBlue:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/18575617@N03/2048790019/sizes/l/

The next one is the main baggage claim for JetBlue and it has some curves built-in to offer more space.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/emerika/534239124/sizes/l/

The northernmost actually looks a lot like the southernmost one and it’s used by the other airlines. There’s shelter over them all in case it rains, but they’re all open air and quite pleasant. Burbank has something similar.

This outdoor baggage claim intrigues me. Can we get pictures next time you’re there?

The Orange County(SNA) terminal used to be like that also. The area was covered, but you are outside alone the sidewalk. The conveyor belt was oval and came out a hole in the wall and went for aways looping around and back into a second hole in the wall, then it would come around again. The other side of the wall was the interior baggage area for the ramp workers.

Any idea how this will affect parking rates?

My understanding is that it shouldn’t have much of an impact. Some of the more recent rate hikes should help pay for this. In addition, the lease expense on Lot D isn’t cheap, so there will be tremendous cost savings when that and the shuttle operation go away. So it shouldn’t have a major impact, and going forward, everyone will be able to walk to the terminal.

Ron wrote:

Also, any word on improving transit to LGB?

This is a pet peeve of mine. I actually received a call for an LB Transit survey recently and that was my number 1 complaint. I ride LB Transit around town, but I would never take it to the airport. It takes way too long.

Also, any word on improving transit to LGB? It is currently served by one slow bus route on an approximately half-hourly schedule. Some obvious improvements would be to iron out some curves in route 111, add an airport loop to 102 to enable cross-town and Blue Line connectivity (M-F only), and extend Metro 266 to enable Green line connectivity.

Phase 1 – Complete the parking structures
Phase 2 – Complete Terminal upgrades
Phase 3 – United, Continental, Southwest all ask the FAA to review LBMC 16.43, and look into it as a “Barrier of Entry”. The residents of Newport Beach fund all of the legal fees (and bribery.. err, lobbying efforts) involved for those airlines. :)

I seem to recall that UA was the only airline to object to the Slot Settlement Agreement of yesteryear.