A Behind-The-Scenes Tour of LAX’s New Tom Bradley International Terminal

I’m currently attending U.S. Travel Association’s International Pow Wow in Los Angeles. One of the media tours offered today was a behind-the-scenes hard hat tour of Los Angeles International Airport (LAX).  As you will see from my photos below the day began at the Flight Path Museum, where a vintage DC3 is on display along with a treasure trove of airline memorabilia. Then, we put on our hard hats and goggles and made our way through the $1.5-billion New Tom Bradley International Terminal construction site, which has reached its halfway mark. We saw both the North Concourse and the massive core area that will house a Great Hall filled with retail shops, dining opportunities and other amenities. We finished in style as we had some incredible plane spotting from the tarmac and on the rooftop Observation Deck where we previewed a “Taste of the New LAX” featuring menu items from local renown chefs like Wolfgang Puck.

My Notes From Today:
-LAX is the third busiest airport in the United States and the sixth in the world.
-LAX is on just 3,500 acres of land
-61,862,052 passengers passed through LAX in 2011
-Most of the passengers stay unlike Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport and O’Hare International Airport (#1 & #2 busiest airports in the U.S.) where the majority of travelers are transferring.
-LAX has 565 daily flights
-Every new wide body route brings the city about $600,000,000m on annual basis
-The roof of the new building is supposed to look like crashing waves (not a tsunami).
-Same architects as Denver and Seoul award winning airports.
-There’s enough steel to build five (5) Eiffel Towers
-The new steel comes from China since it’s so much cheaper
-The core of the new terminal is so large they could drop the Staples Center in it
-Gate 134 is scheduled to opens this September
-35 airlines operate out of Tom Bradley
-In 2014 they are going to demolish all the the old gates in the north and south concourses but gate 123
-North concourse spring 2013.
-LAX charges airlines a fee of $4.50 per passenger
-They will be putting L.A. back into LAX with this new terminal
-LAX Development.org is updated regularly with pictures and video of construction progress