LAX Expects Long Lines for Holidays

Los Angeles International Airport officials plan to announce today that they expect a significant increase in passengers this holiday season, ensuring long lines at ticket counters and security checkpoints.

Airlines that serve LAX have logged extremely heavy bookings for Thanksgiving, leading the city’s airport agency to project an 11% gain in travelers between Nov. 19 and 29 over a similar period last year. Officials expect a similar jump at Christmastime.

The projections put an exclamation mark on a precedent-setting year at the world’s fifth-busiest airport, where the number of passengers is rising faster than at many other major U.S. airports.

Analysts expect LAX to recover a year earlier than initially forecast from the 2001 East Coast terrorist attacks and a recession.

Predictions completed for the city’s airport agency show LAX hitting pre-Sept. 11 passenger levels by 2006. If current growth rates continue, that could occur as soon as next year.

“We expect 2005 to be the year that, for the most part, most airports return to their pre-9/11 figures,” said Jessica Soltz Rudd, senior director of Fitch Ratings’ airport group.

Passenger growth at LAX lagged behind that at many other U.S. airports after the terrorist attacks. The post-Sept. 11 decline at LAX was “more significant, deeper and longer than most large hub airports,” Soltz Rudd said.

After the terrorist skyjackings, carriers cut more flights at LAX than at other U.S. airports. The facility was also hard hit by a nagging statewide recession and a major decline in Asian travel that followed a deadly outbreak in early 2003 of severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS.

This year, LAX marked an 11% gain in travelers through September, topping passenger levels at Atlanta’s Hartsfield International, considered the world’s busiest airport.

This jump occurred after a wide array of low-fare carriers, including Southwest, Delta’s Song, Air Tran and United’s Ted, initiated or increased service at LAX. International airlines also added flights, including some carriers’ first-ever service from the West Coast to India, Pakistan and Peru.

The airport agency projects that the gains through September will continue, leading LAX to serve 61 million travelers in 2004, an 11% jump over last year.

The unexpected climb in travelers means that the airport’s nine terminals, where 40% of the space has been taken up by truck-sized machines for detecting explosives, will probably be crowded over the holidays.

Airport officials suggest several measures to help Southern California residents cope. Travelers with early morning flights -- leaving during the 6 to 8 a.m. rush -- could stay overnight at nearby hotels. Some hotels are offering cut-rate parking for overnight guests who plan to fly out of LAX.

The city’s airport agency plans to broadcast “up-to-the-minute airport conditions” on its 530 AM radio station. The agency received the FAA’s blessing earlier this year to increase the station’s signal strength tenfold, reaching motorists up to 10 miles away.

Officials advise passengers to arrive two hours before scheduled departures of domestic flights, three hours for international trips.

“They need to be prepared for possible longer lines,” said Kim Day, executive director of Los Angeles World Airports. “But we’re certainly going to do everything we can to minimize their wait.”

The federal Transportation Security Administration, the agency created by Congress after the terrorist attacks to hire and manage security screeners, plans to beef up its ranks at LAX over the holidays, largely through overtime.

To help during the holiday crush, some airlines have agreed to provide baggage handlers to load explosives-detection machines, freeing screeners to work the airport’s 60 security checkpoints, said Larry Fetters, the federal agency’s security director at LAX.

“In all the extensive wait times we had over the summer, not once was it because we weren’t staffing our positions,” Fetters said. “We have incredible numbers of people at the airport, and we’re processing them as fast as we can.”