How to Fix LAX By Bringing Alliance Partners Together

When it comes to global airports, Los Angeles International (LAX) usually comes near the bottom in satisfaction. The terminals are cramped, the traffic flows are terrible, and connections between airlines can be painful at best. The airport is in the middle of spending billions on refreshing only one terminal, and that's already going to raise costs to airlines significantly. For LA World Airports (LAWA), the body that runs LAX, creativity should rule the day. There are ways to make the experience far better with minimal additional cost.

It has long been rumored that Alaska Airlines would move terminals at LAX, and now it is official. The airline will move from Terminal 3 to Terminal 6. This allows Alaska to have international and domestic flights operate from the same terminal (unlike today) and it puts the airline connected behind security to Delta, its strongest codeshare partner. This is good news, but I actually think that in the long run, Alaska would be better off in Terminal 3. A few recent moves by LAWA makes a long term vision possible.

Here's how LAX will look after Alaska moves to Terminal 6.

As you can see, it's a jumbled mess of airlines. Where the colors are touching, the terminals are connected behind security (Not necessarily in that location, but you get the point.) And the rest are separated from each, which is a pain. The only serious effort at improvement for the passenger experience is over at the Bradley Terminal, the big one at the left edge of the picture.

The Bradley Terminal is one of the more hated terminals for its lack of amenities and dark spaces, but the current expansion project is going to only add a few gates and cost billions of dollars. LAX isn't going to be able to afford to do any more major projects in the near to mid- future once the bill for this project comes in. So I'm going to call on LAWA to do something that's almost impossible for a government agency, get creative.

One of the bigger problems at LAX has been that some terminals are controlled under long term leases by airlines while others are controlled by LAX itself. Terminal 3 and parts of Terminal 6 have been the two terminals which LAX can use to move things around, and that's why Alaska's move from Terminal 3 to Terminal 6 is relatively easy. Recently, however, LAX announced that it had made a deal to bring Terminal 2 back under its control. Now it's time to start encouraging other changes.

In an ideal world, the big three alliances could all be located together behind security to make connections easier. This would also allow the airlines to share common space. A more efficient use of space at the already space-constrained airport should be encouraged. Here's how I envision it.

United and Continental can anchor the Star Alliance terminal in 6, 7, and 8, where they are already located. The remaining international Star carriers in Terminal 2 (Air Canada, Air China, and Air New Zealand) and Bradley (ANA, Asiana, Lufthansa, Singapore, Swiss, and on occasion, Thai) could move over along with US Airways from Terminal 1. (If they need more room, they could always push some United Express flying to remote gates.) The cats and dogs that currently occupy the end of Terminal 6 could be moved out to make room for these guys.

That would leave Terminal 1 to its sole remaining tenant, Southwest Airlines. Southwest has long been interested in getting additional gates, and this would do it. Besides, its relative isolation away from the other terminals wouldn't be a problem.

With the remaining Star Alliance airlines vacating Terminal 2, that would provide the perfect opportunity for Delta to move back there, where Northwest used to be, and locate itself with its SkyTeam partners Air France/KLM, Alitalia, and Aeromexico. Besides, the terminal is far better equipped to handle Delta's growing international presence than its current location in Terminal 5.

Of course, it would need more space than Terminal 2, and that's where Terminal 3 would come in. Alaska, which has aligned itself much more closely with Delta as of late, would go back to Terminal 3 and Delta could fill out the other half. The two terminals would need to be connected behind security to become the SkyTeam operation.

As for oneworld, its plans are already underway. When the new Bradley project is done, there will already be a behind-security connector between Terminal 4 and the south concourse at Bradley. This will be the oneworld terminal.

That leaves Delta's current Terminal 5 as the place for unaligned domestic airlines (along with the Virgin group of airlines - there is a small customs and immigration facility there) and Bradley's north concourse as the place for unaligned international airlines. The possibility of such a major move is daunting, but it would significantly improve the passenger experience.

The best part about this is that the required investment is relatively minimal, especially when compared to some other projects happening at airports today.

The airport would need to build a behind-security connector between Terminals 2 and 3, as mentioned. An expansion of the customs and immigration facilities would probably be required for the Star Alliance and SkyTeam terminals as well. In the end, you would have a far superior airport as compared to what's there today.

The alliances would be able to help fund some of the moves - they've been eagerly supporting alliance-based terminals in other global airports like London/Heathrow and Tokyo/Narita. Is this a perfect solution? Of course not. The perfect solution is to knock the terminal area down and start over, but that's not realistic.

This project would at least create the framework for a more efficient operation. Airlines come and go when it comes to alliances, but that's ok. Once the alliances are anchored, then usability from a customer perspectives improves dramatically.

I fully admit that getting airlines to all go along with a plan like this will be miserably difficult, but that doesn't mean it can't be done.

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Photo via Flickr user brewbooks

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