Newly renovated terminal 1 at LAX unveiled today-
https://www.dailybreeze.com/2018/11/30/1449865/

I travel through here once and week and it has been incredible to watch the transformation. It’s world class now.

Good for LA and for Southwest! It looks like a beautiful terminal now - congrats to them for getting it done before it so subtly that no one seemed to say much.

On the source, though: they weren't happy that I use an ad blocker, so they blurred out the article. But they had no problem with my access to all their pictures - if it was up to me, I'd have made a cheapskate like myself turn off the blocker if he wanted to see the pictures, but hey, if they're cool with that, so am I!

It is great that terminal 1 is done up to minimum standards but until LAWA gets LAMP done to at least relieve some of the traffic, LAX will remain substandard at best

PSAatSAN4Ever wrote:

Good for LA and for Southwest! It looks like a beautiful terminal now - congrats to them for getting it done before it so subtly that no one seemed to say much.

On the source, though: they weren't happy that I use an ad blocker, so they blurred out the article. But they had no problem with my access to all their pictures - if it was up to me, I'd have made a cheapskate like myself turn off the blocker if he wanted to see the pictures, but hey, if they're cool with that, so am I!

Here are some more pictures on this website-
https://la.curbed.com/2018/11/30/181200 ... affe-tacos

cynlb wrote:

Newly renovated terminal 1 at LAX unveiled today-
https://www.dailybreeze.com/2018/11/30/1449865/

I went through the first ten photos. I saw more photos of politicians and airline management than I saw of the new terminal.

Is T1 still going to remain disconnected airside from the rest of the airport? After Delta is finished with their T2/T3 project, all terminals but T1 will be accessible without having to go back through security. Didn’t know if this project resolved that issue.

kavok wrote:

Is T1 still going to remain disconnected airside from the rest of the airport? After Delta is finished with their T2/T3 project, all terminals but T1 will be accessible without having to go back through security. Didn’t know if this project resolved that issue.

Terminal 1.5 will.
https://www.lawa.org/en/lawa-our-lax/en ... erminal-15

gmcc wrote:

It is great that terminal 1 is done up to minimum standards but until LAWA gets LAMP done to at least relieve some of the traffic, LAX will remain substandard at best

I agree. You could make it look nice, though until that traffic issue is fixed, it's still going to be a cluster f%&#

gmcc wrote:

It is great that terminal 1 is done up to minimum standards but until LAWA gets LAMP done to at least relieve some of the traffic, LAX will remain substandard at best

I had to look this up. So for others: Landside Access Modernization Program

https://www.lawa.org/en/connectinglax/lamp-news

https://www.lawa.org/connectinglax

I flew through there last week. It feels very clean and modern, unlike many of the other terminals at LAX. It was really a great experience.

cynlb wrote:

Here are some more pictures on this website-
https://la.curbed.com/2018/11/30/181200 ... affe-tacos

Thank you! The other photos from the Daily Breeze article were just awful in every way (exposure, focus, composition, etc.) - couldn't get any sense of the new terminal whatsoever.

Based on the photos you shared, Terminal 1 looks great, especially considering its former state of yuck! -ir

I was last there in April, and even then it was like night and day compared to the previous time I went through (over four years ago). Good to know there'll be even more to expect on my next visit.

How many flights a day is WN able to operate out of this terminal?

Now that Terminal 1 is finally done it’s just about time to break ground on Terminal 0. WN is already maxed out in Terminal 1 and needs the extra gate space badly.

a few more pictures-
https://www.trbusiness.com/regional-new ... ght/154782

LAX terminal 1 renovation video-
https://youtu.be/BrBflOIjQlc

B752OS wrote:

How many flights a day is WN able to operate out of this terminal?

I believe summer 2019 should bring WN to 140 flights a day.
Maximum capacity 170 to 190 if Redeye 24/7 operations happened.

Flyguy

Nice terminal, but other LA airports are still more convenient. Fortunately lots of options using southwest. If only it didn’t take 30 minutes to get through the traffic dropping someone off or picking them up at peak times.

vulindlela744 wrote:

I travel through here once and week and it has been incredible to watch the transformation. It’s world class now.

I'm sorry but its not "world class" just a lot better than before!. Having passed through that terminal over 100 times I have fond memories, but its no ICN, SIN, DOH alongside a rapidly growing list of true world class terminals/airports.

As someone mentioned above, its done to LAX's minimum standard!

LAXLHR wrote:

vulindlela744 wrote:

I travel through here once and week and it has been incredible to watch the transformation. It’s world class now.

I'm sorry but its not "world class" just a lot better than before!. Having passed through that terminal over 100 times I have fond memories, but its no ICN, SIN, DOH alongside a rapidly growing list of true world class terminals/airports.

As someone mentioned above, its done to LAX's minimum standard!

It is of my opinion that America will never have airport facilities that could match that of those airports, much like America will never have public transit like that of the cities those world class airports are in.

Returning to airports, I also believe that quality would be improved with the privatization of airports in the United States. Virtually all airports in the USA are owned and operated by the local government. (However, I also firmly believe that ATC should be privatized, so take my opinion as you will)

Can I ask why LAX doesn’t have automated bag drops for any carriers? This would speed up passenger processing hugely.

And if not Auto bag drops - why are the checkin counters not connected to the baggage belts? It must be hugely labour intensive and an occupational health and safety issue to move bags from the scales on the the main belt.

I’m floored this has not been adjusted in this renovation!

Have people forgotten about the Terminal 1 that used to have lines of passengers out the door and down the sidewalk?!? This renovation is a HUGE and most welcome improvement. A remarkable accomplishment considering the fact that the facility sustained a large (>100 flights per day) WN operation throughout the project. Along with the new TBIT, this is a major step in the right direction for LAX.

Keep in mind that we are talking about an airport that hasn't seen a brand new terminal open since 1984; much of the airport's terminal space dates back to the early 1960s. Annual passenger traffic was 67,303,182 in 2000, waffled between ~55 and ~64 million between 2001 and 2012, then increased from 66,667,619 in 2013 to a whopping 84,557,968 in 2017! I suspect this year could be a record breaking one as well, and various airlines are poised to add service to LAX next year. New and improved terminal space can't come fast enough!!

cynlb wrote:

Newly renovated terminal 1 at LAX unveiled today-
https://www.dailybreeze.com/2018/11/30/1449865/

While Garcetti is quite a handsome man... wouldn't it have been nice if they'd taken pictures of, I dunno, the actual terminal??

LAX772LR wrote:

cynlb wrote:

Newly renovated terminal 1 at LAX unveiled today-
https://www.dailybreeze.com/2018/11/30/1449865/

While Garcetti is quite a handsome man... wouldn't it have been nice if they'd taken pictures of, I dunno, the actual terminal??

Haha, yeah that's what I was thinking when I was looking through the photo album in the article. The amount of photos of the terminal itself seem to be quite lacking for an article that's supposed to be about a terminal. I'm probably never going to be able to check it out since I tend to only go up to LAX for international flights not offered in SAN (Terminal 1 being an exclusively Southwest terminal from what I've read means that I'll never be checking it out). I hope LAX posts a virtual tour of the new terminal, or something along those lines.

So apart from some new food and retail outlets has anything else changed?

SWADawg wrote:

Now that Terminal 1 is finally done it’s just about time to break ground on Terminal 0. WN is already maxed out in Terminal 1 and needs the extra gate space badly.

Not just T0, but also the new UA terminal, which will free up gates for other airlines (including AA).

T0 should allow DL to grow into T1.

Growth happens. Sad we stopped building ahead of demand. What happened to the USA?

Lightsaber

Funny, I arrived there on Friday night and was wondering why there were two pianos and two guys playing simultaneously. I assumed it was a Friday night thing.

The terminal is WAY better than before. It's nice looking and at least yesterday, was not overcrowded. But I do agree it's not world-class. More like decent and attractive now.

IMHO the things LAX would need to become a much better airport:
- Airside access between all terminals
- Airside train/people mover
- Train to airport (the remote terminal will help but still not that great compared to so many other airports even in the US)
- Enough gates that half the time you aren't waiting 30-60 minutes after arrival on the taxiway for somebody to push back from your gate

LAXLHR wrote:

As someone mentioned above, its done to LAX's minimum standard!

Ultimately, the airlines are responsible for the final product. By and large, they decide how much they are going to spend and how much design/architecture there is going to be.

For example, google T1 LAX Southwest and T3 Delta, you should find at least one alternative design. The alternatives in many cases were better than the final design. Based on the renderings, they were probably also more expensive.

Still, the $500 million Southwest spent on the T1 redo is a a lot of money, even more when you add the hundreds of millions more that Southwest is spending on T1.5. With that kind of money, Southwest could have built a word class terminal from the ground up. The problem at LAX though is that the Board remains committed to the original configuration of the CTA.

LAX772LR wrote:

While Garcetti is quite a handsome man... wouldn't it have been nice if they'd taken pictures of, I dunno, the actual terminal??

He’s a politician. He only knows how to spend other people’s money and hog the camera during photo ops.

Would be better to see a photo of a couple of hot construction guys who actually did the work vs a well coiffed politician.

B752OS wrote:

How many flights a day is WN able to operate out of this terminal?

WN will only be doing 133 departures a day at LAX in Summer 2019, but WN will have enough room at LAX to operate 150 departures a day out of Terminal 1.

Top domestic destinations in the contiguous U.S. traveled to from LAX that aren't currently served nonstop out of LAX include SEA, EWR, BOS, MCO, PHL, IAD, MSP, DTW, RDU, CVG, CLE, CLT, and CMH. There are some nonstop routes such as LAX-SEA, LAX-MCO, LAX-IAD, LAX-RDU, LAX-CLE, and LAX-CMH that could be added by WN at LAX.

In addition, WN could add nonstop service to Hawaiian destinations out of LAX, even though WN had already said that OAK, SJC, SMF, and SAN will be the initial destinations in the contiguous U.S. that will have nonstop service to Hawaii on WN.

Gary Kelly mentioned at the unveiling that they are ultimately building towards “terminal 1 west” (aka T0) with around 10 gates. Whether they get all of those is another question

ericm2031 wrote:

Gary Kelly mentioned at the unveiling that they are ultimately building towards “terminal 1 west” (aka T0) with around 10 gates. Whether they get all of those is another question

I don’t see why they shouldn’t have priority over those potential gates considering they have had the highest gate utilization of all carriers at LAX. The current terminal 1 lost 2 gates as a result of the renovation and T 1.5 connector. Since Delta, American and United gained additional gates over the last few years, WN should be given the opportunity to grow as well as the number 4 carrier.

This article has some nice renderings of T1.5.
https://www.travelcodex.com/future-of-lax-airport/

atlflyer wrote:

This article has some nice renderings of T1.5.
https://www.travelcodex.com/future-of-lax-airport/

I’m glad LAX is getting a unified exterior look across all terminals.

lightsaber wrote:

SWADawg wrote:

Now that Terminal 1 is finally done it’s just about time to break ground on Terminal 0. WN is already maxed out in Terminal 1 and needs the extra gate space badly.

Not just T0, but also the new UA terminal, which will free up gates for other airlines (including AA).

T0 should allow DL to grow into T1.

Growth happens. Sad we stopped building ahead of demand. What happened to the USA?

Lightsaber

People have become really cheap, don't want to pay for anything, and think that any government spending, for whatever reason, is wasteful and inefficient. The result...infrastructure is inadequate.

"Los Angeles leaders officially unveiled a major makeover Friday at LAX’s Terminal 1, where Southwest Airlines and Los Angeles World Airports (which operates LAX) have finished a $516.7 million redesign."

Am I reading this right? Half a BILLION dollars to update (not demolish and rebuild) one terminal? The article does mention other works having been undertaken and in progress at other terminals, but the wording suggests that the $516..7 is only for T1... so where is the gold and marble?

Looks nice. Not sure if its worth half a billion dollars though...

Wow... that took a long time. I'm afraid Southwest didn't do nearly enough though to address long-term issues-- they really just built out what they should have had in 2010(?) when the project started.

lightsaber wrote:

SWADawg wrote:

Now that Terminal 1 is finally done it’s just about time to break ground on Terminal 0. WN is already maxed out in Terminal 1 and needs the extra gate space badly.

Not just T0, but also the new UA terminal, which will free up gates for other airlines (including AA).

T0 should allow DL to grow into T1.

Growth happens. Sad we stopped building ahead of demand. What happened to the USA?

Lightsaber

highly unlikely there.

Delta's growth gate wise will be into TBIT, highly unlikely Delta wants to go into an additional terminal. T0/T1 will almost certainly be most WN with maybe a few low utilization T5 carriers.

Virtual737 wrote:

"Los Angeles leaders officially unveiled a major makeover Friday at LAX’s Terminal 1, where Southwest Airlines and Los Angeles World Airports (which operates LAX) have finished a $516.7 million redesign."

Am I reading this right? Half a BILLION dollars to update (not demolish and rebuild) one terminal? The article does mention other works having been undertaken and in progress at other terminals, but the wording suggests that the $516..7 is only for T1... so where is the gold and marble?

A large part of the costs for these recent projects are building the foundations to get to the future people mover.

They also involve replacing a lot of underground utilities, which is very very costly, especially considering these terminals are still actively being used in the meantime. T1 in particular, also included widening the concourse to be able to handle the increased passenger demands of all 738 capable gates and building a whole new baggage sortation system. Although they may have not demolished and rebuilt, when you walk into T1 or T7/T8, they look like brand new buildings on the inside...every surface was touched.

Compared to past and future projects there, this project isn't out of the ordinary in cost. DL (T2/T3+TBIT connector) and AA (T4/T5) are almost $2 billion each, UA (T7/T8) was $573 million, WN (T1) $516 million, WN (T1.5) $490 million. There were also previous projects like the AE terminal ($20 million), T4/TBIT connector ($148 million), T5 ($229 million), T6 ($238 million), TBIT ($737 million)

ericm2031 wrote:

Virtual737 wrote:

"Los Angeles leaders officially unveiled a major makeover Friday at LAX’s Terminal 1, where Southwest Airlines and Los Angeles World Airports (which operates LAX) have finished a $516.7 million redesign."

Am I reading this right? Half a BILLION dollars to update (not demolish and rebuild) one terminal? The article does mention other works having been undertaken and in progress at other terminals, but the wording suggests that the $516..7 is only for T1... so where is the gold and marble?

A large part of the costs for these recent projects are building the foundations to get to the future people mover.

They also involve replacing a lot of underground utilities, which is very very costly, especially considering these terminals are still actively being used in the meantime. T1 in particular, also included widening the concourse to be able to handle the increased passenger demands of all 738 capable gates and building a whole new baggage sortation system. Although they may have not demolished and rebuilt, when you walk into T1 or T7/T8, they look like brand new buildings on the inside...every surface was touched.

Compared to past and future projects there, this project isn't out of the ordinary in cost. DL (T2/T3+TBIT connector) and AA (T4/T5) are almost $2 billion each, UA (T7/T8) was $573 million, WN (T1) $516 million, WN (T1.5) $490 million. There were also previous projects like the AE terminal ($20 million), T4/TBIT connector ($148 million), T5 ($229 million), T6 ($238 million), TBIT ($737 million)

Thank you for an excellent explanation.

I still think Terminal 5 when DL first renovated came out the best so far, now not so much now with AA,and whoever else is there now,flew out of Terminal 1 recently and wasn't impressed expected more.I hope DL's T-2/3 come out better

ericm2031 wrote:

DL (T2/T3+TBIT connector) and AA (T4/T5) are almost $2 billion each...

Has it been announced that AA will takeover all of T5? If so, when completed will AA have more gates than DL?

I don’t think I’ve ever been through this terminal before but given that: the interiors are very nice - like many other renovated airports.
It “seems” to me though, that more and more airports are having the design of the retail shops and updated dining doing the heavy lifting.
So long as the huge common areas and concourses are open, airey and well lit, and Brookstone, Johnson Murphy, CIBO and all others are beautiful stores, then they all look nice. Anyplace.
What about dynamic and iconic buildings? TG for the handful of landmarks we have today, doesn’t seem any more are coming!
(Although I do like the very bright multi colors of that 3 mile long outer wall at GIG- a cost effective way to do something unique and reflective of the location)

ericm2031 wrote:

A large part of the costs for these recent projects are building the foundations to get to the future people mover.

The budget for T1 did not include those costs.

The budget for T1 was inflated by cost overruns due to purchase decisions that Southwest made that were not approved by LAWA.

questions wrote:

Has it been announced that AA will takeover all of T5? If so, when completed will AA have more gates than DL?

It has been announced that AA will combine the head house of T4 and T5.

By the time that project is complete, it is expected that AA will have 10 gates in T5. Total gate count (including Eagle and TBIT gates) would range from 30-33.

(You can find the renderings for the project in a video AA produced for its youtube channel.)

So how many gates are there in the fully renovated T1?

lightsaber wrote:

Growth happens. Sad we stopped building ahead of demand. What happened to the USA?

Lightsaber

As someone who works in a government agency... post recession the ideology became "work with what we have until it is absolutely untenable."

cynlb wrote:

Here are some more pictures on this website-
https://la.curbed.com/2018/11/30/181200 ... affe-tacos

4 photos, 3 of retail space. I love airports!

Someone said that the T1 remodel was just a retail improvement. It also include a huge increase in floor space. Both the east and west walls were expanded outward to get more seating and retail space.

Also don't think anyone pointed out that the T1.5 construction is not just planned, it is well underway. Last time I looked (maybe 2 months ago) they were putting in the pilings required for the foundations. I'll check in person next week, but has anyone noticed if the steel framework is underway? When this and the T2/T3 connection is done, the only need to go outside security will be to get from T3 to TBIT.

For evening departures from TBIT when the TSA line is terrible, I'd gladly enter through an uncrowded T1 or T3 and walk to TBIT internally.