Oh I forgot something, it's new at LAX

Air France is now bringing its A380 for flights 65/66 into LAX. The airport is being proactive and has electronic signs at the pertinent exits for the people who are meeting or delivering passengers. This is a good thing. Normally AF comes into Terminal 2, but the A380 is using the Tom Bradley International Terminal aka TBIT. TBIT is undergoing a huge construction project which will go on ad infinitum due to $$$ change orders and contractor issues. When it's finally done, the existing terminal will be torn down to make a kinder gentler terminal area.  So we welcome the new plane to LAX.

One more thing, the vaunted new luggage security area which is in place at TBIT is not doing what they wanted. 

A $140-million baggage screening facility that was part of a recent remodel of the Tom Bradley International Terminal at Los Angeles International Airport has been able to process only about half the luggage it was designed to handle, airport officials said Monday.

Deputy Airport Director Roger Johnson said the facility, which relies on a complicated system of conveyors to feed bags into and out of security scanners, was supposed to screen 3,240 pieces of luggage an hour but has been processing between 1,500 and 1,800 bags an hour.

Because of the problem, Johnson said that occasionally during peak travel times bags have had to be taken to the nearby American Airlines terminal so to be scanned before being returned to Bradley and loaded onto international flights.

“It has not been that often, but it is problematic,” Johnson said.

He attributed the capacity issues to inadequate operational procedures, not breakdowns of the machinery, which is housed in a 45,000-square-foot annex that was included in a $737-million remodel of the Bradley Terminal that was completed in 2010.

 This is the TSA's area of concern. Either they aren't staffing the luggage screening area properly or they aren't moving fast enough with the amount of bags coming in. Can't do the old we'll not do 10% of the bags to move things along anymore, which is what I heard happened in the old days.


Have a nice week.
da bunny