Quote:
Originally Posted by Bikemike
Being the biggest O&D airport doesn't mean transfers aren't important though. Any airport this size and this important has a LOT of business going to both. Connecting flights are still a very important business for LAX and the lack of efficient airside connections continues to hurt LAX in this regard.
|
Let's break this down because otherwise you are just not making sense.
1. Domestic to domestic connections
LAX is geographically nonsensical for vast majority of this type of connections. East coast to secondary west coast cities have plenty of transit options at major hubs: ORD, DEN, SLC, DTW, DFW, IAH... No airline likes to fly those passengers across the country to LAX, then fly them north to OAK/PDX/SJC etc... they would rather ship those passengers to the Midwest hubs and send them on their way. The only kind of transit at LAX that makes sense is to Hawaii. And generally, this type of transfer is with the same airline so those passengers never leave the terminal anyway, making air side connection to another terminal a moot point.
2. Domestic to international connections
There is some of this type of connection at LAX, mainly for flights to Asia and South Pacific and more efficient air side connection is helpful. However, SoCal has more than enough demand to fill those flights to Asia and South Pacific from an O&D stand point so airlines are not tripping over themselves to cater to the lower profit margin connecting traffic. That's why Qantas shifted connecting transit traffic to DFW, Air New Zealand is starting IAH for the same reason, and Asian airlines (KE to ATL, CX to ORD, BR to IAH etc) are flying to interior hubs of their alliance partners - those places are more efficient transit points for people going to/from east coast.
3. International to domestic connections
This is the reverse pattern of #2. However, note that US regulation requires all incoming passengers to clear immigration and customs at first port of entry so more efficient air side connection doesn't help these passengers. They HAVE to make land side connections.
4. International to international connections
This is not a meaningful segment of people using LAX. Again, the main reason is geography. Two types of international to international connection takes place at LAX: South Pacific to Europe, and Asia to Central/South America. US regulations require all passengers to clear immigration and customs so having more efficient air side connection is worthless.
Quote:
It would take a lot longer than 5 minutes to stay airside from one side to the other side of the horseshoe. Not all transfers are neighboring, mind you.
The other thing is making all those stops on an APM is still way more pleasant than having no alternative to walking the entire length with all carry-ons. The horseshoe is just a bad design. Even with airside connectivity for pedestrians, it's a very long walk. There should be some kind of airside shortcut tying both opposing sides of the horseshoe, either underground or via some bridge. Even some segregated connector through the eventual CTA check-in facility would go miles to improving the experience. I'm surprised such an easy and relatively cost-effective solution like that wasn't on the table.
I hope they add it on later as it makes way too much sense.
|
The entire south side is now connected behind security so you can walk from T4 to T7/8 in about 20 minutes. And by next year, TBIT will be connected to T4 behind security too. So if you are a Star Alliance flyer (for example), you can transfer from UA domestic flight arriving at T7 to LH/BR/NH/OZ/NZ/SQ international flights leaving from TBIT completely within air side connection (e.g. DEN-LAX on UA + LAX-TPE on BR). It's about as efficient as most overseas airports with multiple terminals. What would make it better is if all the tunnels have moving walkways and that's something LAWA should probably look into doing.
Let's look at the remaining unconnected terminals:
T1 is Southwest exclusive terminal now and they don't interline with anyone so air side connection is useless. You have to pick up your bags outside security anyway if you are making a domestic to international connection using Southwest for the domestic leg (e.g. LAS-LAX on Southwest + LAX-HKG on CX).
That leave T2 and T3 unconnected. The only major airlines at LAX that could benefit from connecting T2 or T3 to the rest of the terminals are Air Canada (T2), Virgin Atlantic (T2), and Virgin America (T3).
AC has some connecting traffic with UA (T7/8) but not much.
Virgin Atlantic has a metal-neutral revenue sharing trans-Atlantic joint venture with Delta (T5) so that would help them. In the short term, other than relocating Virgin to the Delta side, there isn't any real solution other than air side buses. In the long term, I think LAWA should take your suggestion seriously and think about how to design a sterile walkway from the north to south side. If CTA becomes a reality, I can envision a two-level walkway - lower level outside security and upper level inside security... that shouldn't be hard to do if designed properly.
Virgin America is primarily O&D focused at LAX so they probably doesn't care.
Prev
Linear Mode
