Why is LAX always on flow?

ChasenSFO

ChasenSFO

hen teaser
I heard a pilot ask "Ground, is there flow to LAX today?", to which SFO ground replied "There is always. Always. Always. ALWAYS flow to LA. Always". And he's right. But why? SFO used to always get the bad rap as the horrible GDP airport on the West Coast, but this year the weather has been pretty good and LAX has far surpassed SFO with GDP issues. The airport counters claims that they're over capacity and maintains they could take on way more flights than they have with the 4 runways and remote parking. At least 7 airlines(United, Alaska, American, Delta, Allegiant, Southwest, Virgin America) trying to run a hub out of an already crowded airport makes me think otherwise.

Since I started in the ramp tower in Feb, there has been flow to LAX just about every single day that I've worked(many times around an hour). To contrast, there was very rarely flow to LAX in the 4+ years I worked for an airline here. Is LAX not telling the truth or is this part of the budget cuts?
 
I figured that too, until I read an article where LAX was defending delays saying the 4 runways are almost never at capacity and they could take on more arrivals and departures most of the day. Which in turn would have to mean that those arrivals could be brought into the airport, I suppose.
 
The runways might be able to handle more traffic but I'm not sure there are enough gates for more. Lately while flying UAX stuff, at least once per trip and usually more, I've landed and had to wait for a gate to open up when we were on time. They started sending us to the east hangar area to deplane and bus people over but lately I've seen that full too. Occasionally it is a maintenance delay or a late airplane occupying the gate but sometimes ramp/ops have no explanation other than "everything is full for another umpteen minuets."

I'm sure it isn't unique to LAX but it seems the gate availability is scheduled with little wiggle room so it doesn't take but a hiccup or two to start causing issues.
 
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etflies said:
The runways might be able to handle more traffic but I'm not sure there are enough gates for more. Lately while flying UAX stuff, at least once per trip and usually more, I've landed and had to wait for a gate to open up when we were on time. They started sending us to the east hangar area to deplane and bus people over but lately I've seen that full too. Occasionally it is a maintenance delay or a late airplane occupying the gate but sometimes ramp/ops have no explanation other than "everything is full for another umpteen minuets."

I'm sure it isn't unique to LAX but it seems the gate availability is scheduled with little wiggle room so it doesn't take but a hiccup or two to start causing issues.
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Every weekend. Every single weekend. Too many airplanes and not enough places to put them.
 
Autothrust Blue said:
Every weekend. Every single weekend. Too many airplanes and not enough places to put them.
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The weekend issues are spilling into the week. We landed last Wednesday night and still had to wait for our gate. The gate was occupied so ground had us taxi roughly out to Catalina before turning us back Eastbound then we had to wait for ramp to figure out and coordinate several inbound and outbounds. It was a miracle we were only 25min late.
 
Probably because airlines can't comprehend that airports can handle X number of arrivals per hour, but they choose to schedule X+18 into that time frame.
 
TFaudree_ERAU said:
Probably because airlines can't comprehend that airports can handle X number of arrivals per hour, but they choose to schedule X+18 into that time frame.
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Those dang blasted airlines are at it again! Scheduling flights for passengers based off of marketing and revenue management analytics. Arg!
 
Autothrust Blue said:
Every weekend. Every single weekend. Too many airplanes and not enough places to put them.
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You mean 10 planes doing the work of 3 doesn't amount to a lot of extra ramp capacity?

Sacrilege. Turn in your leather jacket and Ropers NOW. :)
 
Derg said:
You mean 10 planes doing the work of 3 doesn't amount to a lot of extra ramp capacity?

Sacrilege. Turn in your leather jacket and Ropers NOW. :)
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Only if I get a hat with a widget on it in exchange.

And no, it doesn't. But also, if you fly a jet from LAX to any of (SAN, SBA, SMX, SBP) you are wasting fuel. ;)
 
Autothrust Blue said:
Only if I get a hat with a widget on it in exchange.

And no, it doesn't. But also, if you fly a jet from LAX to any of (SAN, SBA, SMX, SBP) you are wasting fuel. ;)
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TURN IN IT, DERGLESS. DO NOT MAKE THE MISTAKE OF BACK-TALKING ME.

;)

(Sure bro, let's work on that!)
 
etflies said:
The runways might be able to handle more traffic but I'm not sure there are enough gates for more. Lately while flying UAX stuff, at least once per trip and usually more, I've landed and had to wait for a gate to open up when we were on time. .
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"taxi to the penalty box"

Or is that term no longer PC?
 
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