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Sunday, May 25, 2008

LAX is a Dump

You’ll never find Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) on an airport ranking for quality service, and if you do it’ll be near the bottom. It’s a dump. In terms of passengers, LAX ranks about 5th in the world, moving 70 million passengers. From here you can go almost anywhere in the world. In fact, it is one of the few airports in the world that serves six continents, but there are bus stations that are more redeeming than this airport.

For a fleeting moment, I thought I was being too harsh, so I checked the thesaurus to see if I could fine a nicer word for dump. The first words that jumped out were—leave, abandon, discard—as in leave this airport immediately, and how much longer until my flight leaves. But I wasn’t really looking for a verb, so dump will have to suffice.

Maybe I’ve come to expect good airports, because I live in Vancouver, where the local airport authority has invested millions of dollars it receives in Airport Improvement Fees to actually improve the airport.

Now some might argue that the airport has gone a little over the top, but there is no denying that Vancouver International Airport (YVR) is one of the loveliest medium sized airports in the world. In fact, skytrax has named it the best airport in North America, while the Airports Council International ranked it as fourth best in the 15-25 million passenger category, behind only Kuala Lumpur, Zurich, and San Diego. Now, I’m not one of those navel gazing, Best Place on Earth British Columbians, so I know that more improvements can be made to YVR, but it feels comfortable. Look to Asia if you want to know what a quality airport looks like.

For the airport authority, it’s about creating a sense of place. With its massive west coast aboriginal art collection, numerous water features, and green and blue colour palette, visitors know they have landed in British Columbia, Canada’s westernmost province. LAX, in turn, makes one feel like they have arrived in East LA, rather than the glitzy entertainment capital of the world.

After landing, my Alaska Airlines flight had to hold short of the gate, while the contracted grounds crew finished eating donuts, or whatever it was they were doing that prevented them from directing our plane in, as scheduled. I had plenty of time for my connecting flight to Malaysia, but I had been warned that the flight was busy, so not to delay checking in. To exit Terminal 3, passengers are guided through a long, wide corridor that feels more like a tunnel. The white, sterile-looking tiles on the wall gave the feel of being in a long neglected bathroom. Someone tried to give the corridor some life, by putting smaller, colourful tiles on one wall. It still felt like a bathroom.

Once outside, it was just a short walk to the International Terminal, which is named after Tom Bradley, who was a five-time mayor of Los Angeles. If he were still alive, I think he may be a tad embarrassed with the edifice that bears his name.

I walked inside and fortunately found the Malaysia Airlines check-in counter right away. The long line snaked away from the counter. People inched their baggage-ladened carts forward. It was hard to know where the line began, although the agents did a fairly good job at directing people. I stood at the end of this massive queue for a few minutes, until the people in front of me were directed to the, “Transfer. No baggage” counter, even though they had baggage to check. Since my luggage had already been put through to Kuala Lumpur, I quickly joined them. After checking in, passengers had to queue again, in an equally long line. This time to put their bags through a security scanner. I’m not sure why this can’t be done when the passenger checks-in, but I’m sure the Transportation Security Administration has a logical reason.

The family that had been in front of me joined this new line. The Dad looked at me and said, “welcome to a third world airport!” Presumably he has endured this circus before. Because I had no checked luggage, I was free to go to security. Now I know why they tell people to arrive 12 hours before your flight. I did notice they made it through that ordeal, because I saw them 19 hours later at the baggage carousel in Kuala Lumpur waiting for their luggage.

I needed to get a book for the long flight. I debated whether to look for one before going through security, or after where there may be more shops. My intuition told me to get it beforehand. I spotted a newsagent, and browsed the shelves. I was first drawn to Anderson Coopers’s, Dispatches from the Edge: A Memoir of War, Disasters, and Survival. I wonder if he’s ever reported from LAX?

Surprisingly, security was a relative breeze. Since I had more than an hour until my flight boarded, I thought I would browse through the plethora of shops that large international airports are known for. But LAX isn’t like most international airports. I found a currency exchange and a little stand selling duty free, which resembled a hot dog stand on a Manhattan street corner. I wandered along, hoping to stumble upon a large shopping arcade. Instead, I came to a little newsstand that was doing brisk business selling water, and because of the late hour, neck pillows. That was it. A magazine shop, or two and a small restaurant. So this is what it was like in the Soviet Union three or four decades ago.

In some areas, construction was evident. I only hope someone is dreaming big. With nothing to keep us occupied, I joined the other 350 restless people waiting for our flight at the gate for more than hour. Then the gate agent announced that we were now allowed to leave LAX. A spirited rush of people streamed onto the airplane.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Who pays for 'fancy airports?' The flying public.

If I wanted to fly from YVR to YYC tomorrow, my cheapest one-way ticket is $205.

By contrast, a ticket from LAX to PHX tomorrow would cost $140.

Of course there are many factors contributing to lower fares in the USA vs. Canada, but I'm sure the fact that LAX is a dump helps ensure cheaper airfares.

Ken Donohue said...

If that's the image that LAX wants to portray to the world, then so be it. We're not talking about ma and pa visiting their grandkids in Phoenix, we're talking about the more than 2,500 passengers in a two hour period (between 11:30 pm and 1:30 am) that were travelling on 7 flights to Asia and one to Tahiti.

I didn't even mention the filty bathrooms.

They can, and should do better.