LAX Braces for Summer Travelers

The Tom Bradley International Terminal at Los Angeles International Airport is infamous with travelers around the world.

The 22-year-old building, home to 34 airlines, is the “worst terminal in the Western world,” where “customs was a nightmare” and “lines a mile long,” according to travelers who posted their experiences on an Internet bulletin board.

It’s about to get much worse.

Low airfares, a weak U.S. dollar and an expanding array of flights to destinations around the globe are expected to contribute to record international traffic at LAX this summer.

Airports throughout Southern California are bracing for record passenger traffic from Memorial Day through Labor Day. And airline officials nationwide expect the busiest summer season since the previous peak in 2001.

Lines at customs, ticket counters and security checkpoints are already growing at LAX. The airport, the world’s fifth-busiest, ranks low in how travelers rate its customs operations, but in a recent week, it had shorter lines than some other major airports.

“I’m just tired. I spent more than 10 hours on the flight and then more than an hour in line here,” Jin Lee said after waiting in the Bradley terminal’s crowded customs hall following her return from a trip to South Korea. “Why are they so long?”

As Lee and a friend stood in the lower level of the Bradley terminal, harried travelers speaking many languages and pushing carts loaded with luggage bustled around them.

At LAX, the city’s airport agency expects 18.5 million travelers this summer, up 6% from the same period a year ago. About 5.1 million of them will be international passengers, a gain of about 10% over June, July and August of 2004.

The increase is welcome news at LAX, which suffered more than other major U.S. airports from the steep decline in travel that followed the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the Iraq war and the 2003 outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome in Asia.

“It’s been four years since there’s been demand like this for airline seats to and from Los Angeles,” said Paul Haney, a spokesman for Los Angeles World Airports, the city’s airport department. “Now airline station managers are telling us that their advanced bookings are up sharply for summer travel, and that means tickets will be scarce and planes will be full.”

Many carriers have added service at LAX this summer, with more flights to Asia, Canada, Europe and Latin America.

Travelers can also choose from more options to Mexico, including flights on regional carriers.

ExpressJet, a regional provider for Continental Airlines, added 26 weekly departures on planes that seat up to 50 passengers from LAX to destinations such as Morelia, Aguascalientes and Leon.

“Because Los Angeles has a huge Mexican and Latin population, we wanted to provide them convenient travel options,” said Martin DeLeon, Continental’s manager of public relations.

Other Southern California airports are expect a busy summer. Passenger traffic at Ontario International Airport, which is managed by the city of Los Angeles, is expected to be up 4% this summer from last year; 2 million travelers are expected.

At Bob Hope Airport in Burbank, JetBlue kicked off three daily nonstop flights this week to New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport -- service that is expected to lure more passengers.

“This will be a peak summer travel season for us by historical standards,” said Victor Gill, an airport spokesman.

Long Beach and John Wayne airports also are planning for a heavy summer, as is San Francisco International Airport.

“We’re definitely seeing a big bump in international traffic,” said Mike McCarron, a spokesman for the San Francisco airport.

Nationwide, international traffic is expected to rise 10% this summer for U.S. carriers, which hope to cash in on more profitable overseas routes, according to statistics from the Air Transport Assn., an airline trade group.

Domestic travel is predicted to grow by 4%, with an estimated 199 million travelers on U.S. carriers between Memorial Day weekend and Labor Day weekend.

Crowded airport lobbies and waiting areas promise to try passengers’ patience, with customs and security managers girding for the busiest summer in four years.

At LAX, officials are working to cross-train customs officers to do several immigration-related duties.

“We want to have as many officers as possible to be able to handle this significant increase in workload,” said Ana Hinojosa, the area port director for LAX for U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

More efficient staffing and new technology helped keep chaos at a minimum last summer, she said, adding that her department works closely with airlines to ensure that passengers understand which documentation they need to pass through customs.

Even so, passengers ranked LAX 18th out of 22 large airports for customer satisfaction at customs checkpoints, according to a 2004 study by J.D. Power and Associates. Only Kennedy in New York, Miami International Airport, Houston’s George Bush Intercontinental Airport and Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport performed worse.

When it comes to customs lines, however, perception isn’t always reality. Despite the airport’s poor reputation with travelers, customs posted shorter wait times at LAX in the last week than at other large airports.

Wait times at LAX customs stations ranged on average from 28 to 35 minutes. The airport had shorter waits than many of the 12 airports with the highest volume of arriving international passengers in the U.S. between May 17 and May 23.

Miami, Kennedy, Chicago’s O’Hare and Washington Dulles International Airport consistently had longer wait times.

“For an airport our size, we’re No. 2 in the nation for international arrivals ... we’re by far the best in a comparison of passenger wait times,” Hinojosa said.

Airport officials hope to refurbish the Bradley terminal’s lackluster image with a $251-million face-lift by upgrading the baggage system, fixing ailing elevators and escalators, and installing new concessions. Construction is expected to start early next year.

The record-breaking travel season at LAX comes as Mayor-elect Antonio Villaraigosa grapples with what to do with his predecessor’s $11-billion modernization plan for the facility. The proposal, which faces litigation in state court this summer, probably is years away from being built, and its first phase wouldn’t address some of the most glaring deficiencies at LAX, including crowded terminals.

The summer also begins with the threat of a strike at United Air Lines by its ground workers over the firm’s attempt to get more wage concessions to help it emerge from bankruptcy. United is the largest airline at LAX.

The union is trying to negotiate a deal with the carrier by Tuesday, when a bankruptcy judge is expected to rule on a request by United to annul its contract with workers.

A strike could compound problems with crowding. Flights on most airlines are expected to be full, making it difficult for United’s competitors to find room for additional passengers.

“Disruptions could create a severe ripple effect,” said Richard Aboulafia, an aviation analyst at the Teal Group in Fairfax, Va. “It’s not like there is extra labor. They’ve cut all of the fat, and indeed some of the muscle, out of the system.”