LAX renovations for enormous airliner approved

[question everything]

The Daily Breeze

Tuesday, May 03, 2005

LAX renovations for enormous airliner approved

Work on two passenger gates to accommodate the Airbus A380 will cost up to $7.7 million.
By Ian Gregor
Daily Breeze

Two LAX passenger gates will be renovated at a cost of up to $7.7 million to accommodate the enormous, 555-passenger Airbus A380 that is scheduled to enter commercial service next year.

The Board of Airport Commissioners approved the work Monday. The project at the Tom Bradley International Terminal will include enlarging one of the gates, relocating fuel pits and completing parking improvements for the A380, which is longer and wider than the biggest commercial jet in service today, the Boeing 747.

In an unusual arrangement, the work will be supervised by a nonprofit corporation of 43 airlines that use the Bradley Terminal rather than by airport managers. This is being done to ensure the project is completed before the first A380 is scheduled to fly into LAX in late 2006, said Mark Massman, the airport department's deputy executive director of project and facilities development.

The airport department expects to spend a total of $53 million to accommodate the A380. That figures includes $28 million to improve intersections, $10 million for the Bradley Terminal gates and passenger holding rooms, $12.5 million on remote gates and $2.25 million to reinforce the Sepulveda Tunnel.

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[Bronco69]

1. I thought I read somewhere that the A380 seats 840 people. n/t

[ewagner]

2. Depends ...

on the configuration chosen by the individual airline IIRC....

on edit: I wonder how much of the $7.7 million is for CATTLE PRODS because that's what it will feel like to get loaded on one of these pigs.

[KlatooBNikto]

3. Won't be long before they are able to transport an entire small town in

one of these airliners.If you think the lines at irports are long now, you ain't seen nothing yet!

[lectrobyte]

4. I think that's an all-coach max. 555 is still a lot of people to move

around.

[Tempest]

5. The plane hasn't even been approved for U.S. flights yet

It needs to go through an evacuation test before the TSA will approve the plane.

I don't see how they're going to successfully evacuate 550 people in 90 seconds.