... isn’t always easy, but at LAX it may present a window of opportunity. So says Gina Marie Lindsey, director of the Los Angeles World Airports system and the subject of an upcoming cover story in AIRPORT BUSINESS magazine.
LAX has had minimal infrastructure investment since 1984, the year it hosted the Summer Olympics. It operates nine independent terminals, and its lack of standards for airline leases (some long-term, some short-term, some not at all) has led to DOT complaints and other assorted litigation. Gina Marie and her staff have made peace with the carriers, at least in the short term, and are heavily focused on developing and implementing a capital improvement program.
Regarding the economy, Lindsey says, “You bet I’m worried about it. But I think the industry is in a total revolution; this is a game-changer on what aviation is going to be in the future. For better or for worse, the economic situation has actually helped in a very narrow sense, because it’s brought down the price of fuel, the original offending element of what was causing the airline crisis.
“We can look at it a couple of ways. We could say this is a disaster because right when we need to have more traffic and more money coming in, we have a slowdown. Is this going to derail our capital program? My answer to that is no; our capital program is not predicated on expansion or additional traffic. The capital program is predicated on a need to replace facilities and to bring better customer service.
“To some degree, being able to have some of our facilities less used will give us a short-term window.â€
LAX is a very tired facility overall. At a time when major cities worldwide have revamped their airports with state-of-the-art terminals, Los Angeles is only now getting with the program. It’s traffic this fall is down some 13 percent; having fewer passengers disrupted by major construction projects could be a good thing.
Thanks for reading.