Summer Traffic Has Taken Off at LAX

Travelers beware: City officials expect a double-digit increase in passengers at Los Angeles International Airport over the four-day Labor Day weekend, assuring long lines at ticket counters and security checkpoints and on the horseshoe-shaped roadway.

An estimated 785,000 travelers are expected to pass through LAX from Friday through Monday, up 12% from the holiday weekend last year.

After a prolonged slump following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, air traffic has taken off this summer at the world’s fifth busiest airport. City officials say the airport is on track to handle about 61 million passengers in 2004, the most since 9/11.

The upturn is no surprise to the Maddens, who spent so much time sitting in traffic at LAX recently that they watched a jet carrying Audrey Madden’s mother back from a holiday in Germany land on the airport’s north side.

“I’m not looking forward to getting out of here,” said Madden, as she waited for her mom to go through customs in the Tom Bradley International Terminal. “It will take forever.”

At peak travel times, during the lunch hour and in the evening, getting around the horseshoe requires a measure of patience. Several travelers recently spent a half-hour driving from Terminal 1 to Terminal 7 on the lower level at 10 p.m., a busy time for arrivals. Others missed a midday flight after it took 45 minutes to take a shuttle bus from Lot B near the 405 Freeway to Terminal 4.

Despite that, the number of cars, buses and trucks in the central terminal area this summer is down 25% from its peak in August 2000. This may mean some travelers are finally eschewing their cars for public transportation.

“I think it’s a perception that it is more of a hassle to come in here in a private vehicle than it was prior to 9/11 because of restrictions on curb parking, higher enforcement on the street with motorcycle officers, and random road checks for explosives,” said Michael DiGirolamo, a deputy executive director with the city agency that operates LAX.

To avoid security delays at the airport, officials said, more passengers are taking a shuttle or taxi to LAX. (Taxi queues routinely have been so crowded this summer that some arriving passengers complained they couldn’t find a cab.) And the new transportation savvy has meant more business for limousine drivers, who find themselves making more trips to the airport.

Carlos Sical, a limo driver for 16 years, said that “10 or 12 years ago, it was much easier to get shortcuts into the airport, but that’s not true anymore. Now everyone knows about them. Now I spend at least 30 minutes in traffic to get here three times a day.”

An increasing number of travelers are using remote airport parking lots. Many travelers became familiar with those when the airport was closed to private vehicles for several months following the skyjackings.

Rental car companies also have done their part, voluntarily decreasing the number of trips by their shuttle buses into the airport by 14%.

Those who braved the horseshoe in their own cars this summer found higher parking fees in the seven parking structures. All the meters were removed and rates were increased from $24 a day to $30 a day, to pay for new security measures. Officials think the higher rates have coaxed more people out of their cars and on to mass transit.

Meanwhile, airlines at LAX, including those that cut dozens of flights after 9/11, reported a strong season.

“We’ve had a record summer, load-factor wise,” said Alan Wayne, a United Airlines spokesman. But the airline still has 80 fewer departures a day than it did in the summer of 2001. “Anything below 82% full is considered a bad day.”

It took LAX longer than other major airports to recover from air traffic downturns after the attacks because carriers slashed more flights servicing LAX and refused to add them back until more people started traveling. Then, the one-two punch of the Iraq war and an overseas outbreak of the respiratory illness SARS early last year erased hard-fought gains in air traffic and forced passenger levels to a six-year low.

This year, passenger traffic is still 7% lower than its high in the summer of 2001. But carriers are adding flights back to their schedules at LAX. City officials expect to have served 17.6 million people from Memorial Day through Labor Day.

Smaller airports around the region also expect a bustling holiday weekend. John Wayne Airport reported record passenger levels in June and July and expected full flights through the end of the summer. “The airlines told me that they’re booked on every flight through Labor Day,” said Justin McCusker, a John Wayne Airport spokesman.