american

0

By JOHN BRINSLEY

Staff Reporter

Harried and confused, a wayward passenger sped around the American Airlines terminal at Los Angeles International Airport last week searching in vain for the correct gate. Finally, he approached a counter and asked, “Where’s gate 44A?”

“Take the escalator downstairs and take the bus out to the gate,” he was told.

“Down? And then take a bus?” he moaned, before hurrying off.

He wasn’t the only one to be confused. American’s operations are getting a massive facelift at Terminal 4 this summer. Certain areas are blocked off, vendors are in temporary structures, and construction noise has become part of the landscape.

On the heels of an aggressive expansion by United Airlines, which included upgrading its facilities and adding flights, American’s $245 million refurbishment is part of a major push on the West Coast, which includes the addition of several new flights out of L.A.

Since May 1, American has inaugurated daily nonstop routes to Paris and Hartford, and added one new nonstop flight a day to New York, Chicago and Dallas/Fort Worth.

Meanwhile, American is in the process of integrating recently purchased Reno Air, a process that will be completed at the end of August. This means an additional 150 nonstop American flights a day going up and down the West Coast 30 out of LAX.

“We need a larger, better terminal facility in Los Angeles,” said Al Becker, spokesman at American’s parent company AMR Corp. in Dallas. “For the longer-term, we need a larger network operation for North/South flights along the West Coast.”

To accommodate additional flights, American is in the first stage of renovations that will last until August 2001. Upon completion, the airline will have increased its jet gates to 13 from 10 and added a new international arrivals facility linked to the Bradley International Terminal next door.

By November, the ticket counter will have 86 check-in positions, up from the current 54. A new outbound baggage system will be added along with three new baggage-claim carousels. A fourth is slated for completion in January, doubling American’s baggage-claim capacity.

The airline says that service has been unaffected, and while there is some degree of added inconvenience, most passengers seem to be taking it in stride.

“I use (American) four or five times a year, and I can’t notice any difference,” said a man boarding one of the new flights to Hartford. “It’s always chaos anyway.”

American officials say their plans at LAX were not influenced by United’s $260 million upgrade and its new designation of L.A. as a hub.

“Planning for this has been underway for some time, and construction started last October,” Becker said. “This is no knee-jerk reaction to United.”

Some vendors have been moved into interim facilities while the construction lasts, and the terminal has a disorderly look. One of the normal passageways out of the gate area has been cut off, and finding a bathroom is something of a challenge.

W. H. Smith Inc., which operates about a dozen newsstands in the airport, as well as bookstores and specialty stores, had to move out of a 2,500-square-foot newsstand and into two 200-square-foot stores as a result of the construction.

While the larger store sold perhaps 250 magazines and 15 to 20 different kinds of T-shirts, the two small stores now offer about 40 magazines and one kind of T-shirt, said W.H. Smith General Manager Chris Stephens.

“We knew about it well in advance and took steps to budget for lower sales accordingly,” Stephens said. “Sure it hurts, but ultimately we’ll make it back.” He expects to move back to the larger store sometime this fall.

Once the first phase of construction is done, American will embark on adding to the security checkpoint area, building a new international arrival facility, improving its concourse and creating a new first-class lounge. Restrooms will be added as well.

The overhauls by American and United have no effect on the ongoing and controversial efforts to expand LAX.

“They last finished redoing their (terminals) in the early ’80s, and it is time to refurbish again,” said Tom Winfrey, spokesman for L.A. World Airports, the city agency that operates LAX. “Our plans don’t include disrupting those buildings as they are now.”

No posts to display