Often referred to as LAX, which is its IARA airport code, Los Angeles International Airport is the main airport which serves Los Angeles and the surrounding area in California, USA. It is an extremely busy airport and was found to be the sixth busiest airport in the world in 2010, with 59 million passengers walking through its doors.
Location and history
It is located in the south west area of the city called Westchester which is located about 16 miles from downtown Los Angeles. It covers some 3,500 acres of land which was founded in 1928when the city of Los Angeles acquired the land which was then fields of lima beans, barley and wheat and converted them to dirt landing strips and the first airport structure was built in 1929.
Originally known as Mines Field, after the realtor that arranged the purchase of the fields, the airport’s name was changed in 1941 to Los Angeles International Airport. From then the airport grew to be the main airport in Los Angeles taking over from Burbank airport and Grand central airport in Glendale and in 1961 the ‘theme building’ was constructed providing a sweeping view of the airport.
From the first jet service taking off from LAX in 1959 to New York, the airport began to be a major centre for jet travel, highlighted by the use of Boeing 747s by TWA from 1970 on the route to New York. Terminals were also in use as satellite buildings which were accessed by underground tunnels from the ticketing area, and in 1981 a $700 million expansion of LAX was undertaken to prepare for the 1984 Olympics which involved the construction of two new terminals for the airport including the sophisticated Tom Bradley terminal.
A brief explanation of the terminals of LAX
Today LAX has nine passenger terminals that are arranged in a horseshoe shape and served by a shuttle bus.
Terminal One serves mainly regional flights and is the busiest terminal offering around 135 departures each and every day.
Terminal two, serves foreign airlines that do not utilise the tom Bradley terminal. It was the original international terminal having been built in 1962.
Terminal 3 is currently used by the airlines, Virgin America, V Australia, JetBlue, Alaska Airlines, and AirTran Airways.
Terminal 4 is used by American Airlines exclusively, with the exception of Qantas departures to Brisbane and Auckland. Terminal five is used by Delta Airlines, with terminal 6 used by Continental and some Delta flights and now Alaska Airlines from April 2011.
Terminals 7 and 8 are the home for United Airlines.
The Tom Bradley International terminal which is the latest terminal to built hosts the international airlines not using terminal 2 such as British Airways, Swiss airlines, Lufthansa and Turkish airlines amongst others.
In summary
Los Angeles International Airport handles more non-connecting passengers than anywhere else in the world and is also the busiest airport in California and the third busiest airport for passenger traffic in the United States of America alone.
