On Approach: A Brand New LAX Is Coming – CBS Los Angeles
A couple of weeks ago I did an interview with the local CBS folks for a story they were putting together on the modernization of LAX. That ran Thursday night. The final cut is a very positive story about what LAX is doing, and it’s a good overview. But it doesn’t include the negatives about wasteful spending that I also discussed. Here’s the video.
Cranky on the Web: Modernizing LAX
10 comments on “Cranky on the Web: Modernizing LAX”
The video does not play. :-(
Works fine for me. If you’re still having trouble, just click the link and go to the website or try a different browser.
I can start it OK, but where’s the icon to take it full screen? Seems to be website content that covers the far right of the video (I was able to get rid of the ad) and covers part of the bottom toolbar.
Oldiesfan – When it’s running, I mouseover and get a little bar that slides up from the bottom with the full screen view on the right side. I didn’t have any issue.
Great job Brett and great plugs… This was a major coup! Congrats!
Brett,
What were the comments you made about the wasteful spending being done? BTW, great plug for this site!
Richard – I’ve just had concerns about a lot of projects. The Bradley Terminal was too expensive. The airport has also gone and wasted money on things like fancy light poles that surround the upper roadway now. In general, I find that the airport spends too much money for what it’s trying to do. On the other hand, if it really wants to spend crazy money, then it should be thinking bigger and redevelop the entire terminal area instead of trying to put together patchwork band-aids on the existing infrastructure.
Brett,
great job in getting exposure in one of the US’ largest media markets.
LAX is an enormously important and strategic airport and the physical modernization of the facilities is certainly welcome, esp. because the tight space makes it so difficult to move beyond the original terminal design. Whatever space that can be found for new gates comes nowhere close to being sufficient to take the equivalent of an existing terminal or more worth of gates out of service for a complete redesign.
Of course, the bigger story at LAX is the significant market movements that are taking place between carriers with the big 3 network carriers plus Southwest having a gate advantage that makes the cost of adding flights very costly for some carriers. Still, the big 4 are implementing west coast strategic plans that affect their presence at LAX; it will be very fascinating as that story continues to develop over the next few months and years. And there is growth by international carriers while some smaller US carriers can find a little space here and there.
Brett,
In a related story… to the one about LAX improvements…
I would like to see a future piece about San Diego (SAN) airport, the good news and bad news. For some folks in the south LA market, Orange County, SAN is in competition with LAX.
And you might as well throw Tijuana airport in the story too… TIJ.
Both airports are gaining in long haul international flights.
SAN has JAL flying a 787 non stop to Narita, and BA flying a 747 non stop to LHR.
I believe both of these flights are daily ?
The SAN single runway is 9,400 ft. long.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Diego_International_Airport
In a recent panic, our flight from PSP to SFO was delayed by over 3 hours and we were going to miss our flight to Sydney, Australia. A kind and generous United service desk agent authorized a cab to take us to LAX and catch the flight to Sydney at 10:30pm , almost our original time for the SFO flight.
Now, while the driving to LAX took approximately 2 hours, the exit from the expressway to the departure at Terminal 7 took almost 50 minutes. The culprit, Uber. They are not required, as cabs are, to go to the departure level only. All of the Uber users were at the arrival area blocking traffic with their luggage and asking every car that came by if this was there ride. LAX is FUBAR as everyone knows when it comes to traffic, but this fiasco is unbelievable. We refuse to use LAX on a regular basis partly because United now operates only 1 flight a day to and from PSP to LAX at a cost of over $450 for a fare that used to be $156. Talk about gouging. The Uber situation confirms why we will not use LAX unless it is an emergency.
Thanks for the newsletter.
Jim Myers Palm Desert, CA