Too Few Shuttle Buses at the L.A. Airport

The current wait at Parking Lot B to get onto a shuttle bus to go to the main LAX terminal is completely unacceptable, and the individual in charge of this fiasco should be embarrassed beyond belief. Passengers are fighting for taxis (some offering rides for $10 per person off the meter) as they wait in interminably long lines, only to have to be packed like sardines as they frantically scramble to squeeze into a dangerously overcrowded shuttle.

As a commercial airline pilot who has traveled to a number of Third World airports, I can honestly say LAX has joined their ranks. If Mayor James Hahn had to ride a B shuttle bus to the terminal, the number of shuttle buses available would double, or private automobiles would be allowed back into the main terminal area. Explain to me why an unscreened taxicab or hotel shuttle bus represents less of a threat than a private vehicle.

Is it any wonder why United Airlines has cut back the number of flights it offers out of LAX by 40%? For the business and leisure passenger alike, LAX has become the pariah of airports.

Michael Randall Hedden

Canyon Lake

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Riddle me this: Passenger-car parking on site at LAX is prohibited due to concerns related to terrorism. How is it that private cars are today using the lot?

The answer? Airport employees are being allowed to park there (by the way, parked all the way up to the edge of the lot in the closest proximity to the passenger terminals) as we speak! How can the FAA, the city of Los Angeles and those in charge at LAX allow private cars for some but not for all?

Buddy Enright

Santa Monica

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Re “Luggage Loophole for U.S. Skies Stirs Fears,” Oct. 16:

I have flown an average of two to three round trips per month for the last 10 years. I will now radically change my life and not fly again in the foreseeable future. The Times has stated that approximately 90% of checked bags are never X-rayed to check for bombs and that luggage is not matched, either. (Although, even if these things were done, would it really matter to a suicidal terrorist?) I have flown more than 37,000 miles on United this year alone, and now a spokesman for that airline has indicated they are in “a fight for [their] survival.”

Doesn’t it make sense to the airlines and the FAA that until you can do a better job of making persons like myself feel secure, we shall join you in watching the number of flights decrease, perhaps until there are none?

Mark Katz

Los Angeles