LAX plans revamped

Again. For the third time in six months there are new plans to remodel Tom Bradley International, this time involving construction of two concourses on either side of the existing terminal. As part of the proposal, the old concourse would be demolished, but the ticket lobby would remain in place. The revisions, reported over the weekend by the Daily Breeze, pretty much kill plans for a Midfield Satellite Concourse, which had been signed off by the City Council in April. But a lot has happened since April. Building Midfield would have had to be financed, at least in part, by the airlines, and the airlines - the ones still in business - aren't in much of a spending mood. Besides, the project was starting to get complicated, what with a proposed underground people mover that would ferry passengers back to the main terminal. When Midfield began to fade as an option, officials considered a quick-fix of adding larger gates on the back of Bradley while making major renovations to the building. But the Breeze reports that seismic code upgrades to the old concourse would have cost too much. The new idea, which seems to be the most sensible, would allow the old concourse to keep operating while the new ones are built.

The airport stands to save $70 million to $110million in construction costs by building a pair of new concourses, rather than renovating the old space. Airport officials still hope to have two new airline gates opened on the back of the Bradley terminal by 2012, with the entire project completed by the following year. "It was a no-brainer for me, so I support this concept," said Los Angeles City Councilman Bill Rosendahl, whose district includes LAX. "As we got our hands around the project, we found that it would cost more to renovate Bradley and eventually create an operational nightmare," he said. "If we're going to do this job, then we should do it right." The new concourses will also offer passengers more space to eat and shop. In turn, officials hope the move encourages passengers to spend more money, according to Frank Clark, executive director of LAXTEC, the agency that represents the international airlines housed in the Bradley terminal.

International flights are becoming a very big deal for LAX, and airport officials have been grappling with ways to improve the current logjam that often requires planes to be parked away from the terminal building. From my June Los Angeles magazine piece:

Over the course of 2006, the average daily transoceanic round-trip from LAX added $623 million to the local economy and supported 3,120 jobs, according to a study prepared for the Los Angeles County Economic Develop-ment Corporation. Given the slumping dollar, overseas visitors could be one of the few economic bright spots in the next year or two. Of course, airport administrators in San Francisco and Las Vegas are thinking the same thing. They’ve already grabbed some post-9/11 market share from LAX (Los An-geles and Miami were the only cities to see a drop in international passengers between 2000 and 2006).