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Originally Posted by jg6544
They didn't build DIA in downtown Denver, in case you're unfamiliar with it.
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DTW is the "newest" airport in the US: having all its terminals totally rebuilt in the past 10 years. McNamara Terminal (Delta's second largest hub) is the only terminal that is, in terms of looks, size, scale, and quality, straight out of Asia. The new TBIT will be in that same category once it's fully opened and operational, but the rest of the terminals and airfield work will be a gradual process.
LAX could improve in a lot of areas right now, but for an airport with an airfield that was smaller than ATL pre-runway 10/28 (ATL's 4-parallel runway layout was based off LAX) sering a metro area of 18 million, it makes remarkably high and efficient use of what it has. There are no large empty areas of the airport at any given time, something I can only say about it and ATL. And there are no large areas of open land to build a new DFW or DEN-sized airport anywhere in Greater Los Angeles that would be convenient to a majority of residents in the region and that are located on the E-W flight paths into the area. Anyone who flies into LAX sees the necessity of this by looking out the right windows of the aircraft. At 10,000 ft over the Inland Empire, you're basically just 10 miles south of the San Gabriel Mountains and are level with them in elevation.
The ONLY thing besides the current improvements and master plan for LAX that would provide significant congestion relief and additional capacity for air travel in Southern California would be to move San Diego International Airport to Miramar. There's room there for an airport at least the size of O'Hare to serve not only San Diego, but OC and the southern half of the Inland Empire as well. But that won't happen until another BRAC round decides on closing the facility and/or moving its operations elsewhere. San Diego will do this eventually, but it will be at least another generation before it happens.
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Originally Posted by atlantaguy
DIA is the newest major airport in the U.S., built from scratch on virgin prairie 25 miles from Downtown. Of course it's cleaner, less confusing (being modeled after the uber-efficient ATL) and much easier to get around.
LAX was built in a different day and age decades ago, when airlines had their own individual terminals and "connecting hubs" were a totally unknown concept. LAX performs remarkably well given its age, space constraints, litigious well-funded NIMBY's, it's position as THE de facto premiere gateway to Asia & the Pacific Rim for the entire Country and the fact that it is the number one O&D airport in the entire U.S. And it does all of this without slot controls.
No offense intended here, but if you find LAX to be an embarrassment I take it you have never flown into JFK, LaGuardia or Newark.
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JFK is the only New York area airport that is making any significant improvements in any area, and most of it is thanks to Delta. United couldn't give two sh*ts bout EWR, they'll just milk it for all its worth until it's absolutely necessary to rebuild the whole thing from scratch. United is giving more attention to IAH (a hub they threatened to cut a huge amount of service from if Houston opened up HOU to international flights for WN) right now, of all its hubs: that says a lot more about EWR than anything else.
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