Friday, October 4, 2013

The new TBIT gates

Last week, I showed you the interior of the newly-opened part of the Tom Bradley International Terminal. I also mentioned that with the opening of the west-side gates, the C-10 gates have been closed in preparation for demolition of the old TBIT structure. Once it's gone, there will be new TBIT gates in the C-10 alley. The same thing will happen at the north end, in the D-10 alley. Meanwhile, however, all the new gates on the west side of the TBIT are virtually invisible from the control tower. We can see the tip of the tail on aircraft parked at a few of them, but others are completely blocked by the high-arching roofline of the new TBIT. To help us keep track of who's where, and which gates are open or occupied, the airport has installed some video cameras with a feed to a screen in the tower. Here's how we see the west side of the TBIT:


That's Taxiway S running across from left to right. If you look to the right, you'll see the first section of the new Taxiway T under construction. That is where the old American Eagle terminal and American Airlines maintenance hanger used to be. Here's another view, courtesy of a LAWA diagram:




2 comments:

  1. It looks like a very nice facility, it ought to, given the cost.
    I was just going to ask how the deletion of the dual cross-field taxiway affects ground operations on the field, when my eye finally fell on the paragraph between the two photographs. I once overlooked a crucial sentence tucked between two diagrams during a chemistry exam in high school!

    The lower left of picture Ptbit1190429 looks clear, with Thai International on 152, Air Tahiti Nui on 154 and All Nippon on 156. The upper part of the pic is not so good, I think there is another Air Tahiti Nui on 132, flanked by a 747 on 134 and a 777 on 130 of the same airline company, but I can't figure out what it is. My closest guess is Asiana, but the colors look way off. What is the plane on 148?
    Is the A380 gate on the northern part of the old TBIt still in use?
    Oh, and can you tell us the difference between gate 134 and 134A?
    I still remain shocked by the price tag, though. Eight gates, allbeit most of them group VI gates, for 1.5 billion dollars?
    Granted the gates on the other side are still under construction, but still. I think there will be four gates on the south section, how many on the north one?
    Anyway, the old Tom Bradley Terminal was built for the Los Angeles Olympics, it certainly made its money back!

    --Filip

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  2. That's an Asiana B747 on 134; the aircraft on 130 is a Virgin Australia B777. Gate 148 has an A380; I don't remember who it was when I took this photo, but based upon the time of day and the surrounding aircraft, it will most likely be either Air France, Korean, or Singapore -- or possibly a Qantas running late.

    Gate 123 is still used for A380 operations when no other A380 gates are available, short of the west gates. I saw a Qantas A380 on 123 just this morning.

    The differences between 134 and 134A (and 130 and 130A) are to accommodate different type aircraft. This was done, I was told, after the initial planning, because gate 132 had originally been intended solely as a narrow-body gate. That was before the disappearance of Mexicana, who was up to that time the primary narrow-body user at the TBIT. With the loss of Mexicana, gates 130 and 134 were adjusted to allow some wide-body aircraft to fit at 132 with other wide-bodies at the neighboring gates. It has not been completely seamless, however, as we have had several instances of an aircraft arriving at gate 132 only to find that it can't pull in because the aircraft on one of the adjacent gates has not been positioned properly. The airport has gotten better about scheduling the gates though; I haven't seen this happen in several weeks.

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