Well, it's not quite that bad . . . not yet, anyway. As I'm typing this we are nearing the end of day 23 of the partial shutdown of the U.S. government. On Friday, many of the nation's air traffic controllers received paystubs for $0.00. There are many others besides the controllers; TSA agents and the Coast Guard are just two. All of us are working because we have to for the safety of the public, with the promise that we will get paid eventually. Whenever that is.
Meanwhile, nonessential government employees are not at work and not getting paid either. In the past, these folks have gotten paid (eventually) even though they were not allowed to come in to work, but there is no guarantee that will happen again this time. Because they are not required to come in, they could (theoretically) go find temporary employment elsewhere to tide them over, although a few weeks after Christmas is hardly an ideal time to go searching for a job.
In the first full week after New Year's, the traffic at LAX has subsided a little as we head into the winter slump. Our next busy period will be around Spring Break, with perhaps a little bump for Valentine's Day weekend. In other news:
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| In the wake of the failed acquisition by Icelandair, Wow Air will be leaving LAX later this month as it reduces operations and restructures in an attempt to stay alive. Wow Air will also be pulling out of San Francisco at the end of March. Wow had been running the Los Angeles - Reykjavik route with Airbus 330-200s, but when two of the three they had were returned to the leasing company we started seeing them in Airbus 321s instead. The A321s have to make a fuel stop in Canada before continuing on to Iceland. |
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| Norwegian Air Shuttle was thought to be in danger of shutting down at the end of 2018, but has managed to find the funds to continue operations. We get several Norwegian flights a day at LAX, all in -8 and -9 Dreamliners. |
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| Speaking of Dreamliners, El Al brought this one wearing retro paint through LAX a few days ago |
The recent weather in California brought us some unusual visitors when they had to divert from San Francisco. There were others, but these two were photo-worthy:
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| We get Air China flights everyday at LAX, but not in the B747-8 |
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| Likewise, British Airways doesn't normally bring a B777-200 to LAX |
And now for some shots that are worth sharing just because I like them:
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| British Airways is one of the last carriers operating the B747-400 for passengers at LAX. This one wears a Remembrance poppy on the tail. |
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| KLM is the other regular operator of passenger B747-400s at LAX. |
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| Atlas Air mostly operates cargo flights at LAX, but we occasionally see this passenger B747-400 |
To wrap up, let's have one more look at that KLM B747 in their new livery. This was taken on Christmas Day from the little park on the top of the hill in El Segundo. That's the Hollywood sign on the far left. The controllers who were on duty that day have yet to get paid for it.
