TBIT West Gates Open for business

On Monday of this week, there was a ceremony to mark the grand opening of the Midfield Satellite Concourse (MSC). Now referred to as the TBIT West Gates, this concourse is the new LAX home for several airlines already. The first to start operating out of the new West Gates was Viva Aerobus, who has been there for a couple of weeks already.

Next to make the move was Allegiant, followed by Sun Country.

The most recent transplant has been Frontier, who has coincidentally announced plans to depart LAX at the end of the summer. 

 

All of the above carriers were relocated to the West Gates concourse from Terminal 5 with the exception of Viva Aerobus, who had been at Terminal 6. In addition to these, several carriers who were already operating from the TBIT began to have some flights at the West Gates. Volaris was the first I saw to have an arriving flight assigned there.

I have not yet been over to the West Gates concourse, but a colleague has, and his report was that there were not many concessions open yet. I have heard that the city is searching for a new concessions operator after the current one opted not to renew their contract. I have also heard that some airlines are not happy about being relocated to the new West Gates. Philippine Airlines is one that has publicly complained about their forced move: https://usa.inquirer.net/71945/pal-protests-gate-transfer-at-lax-airport-management-responds

Look at that, vol 2! aka: Oh no, not more airplane photos!

This B767 was a new addition to someone's cargo fleet; I wonder where they got it?

This may have been the last arrival of the "Hand in Hand" Hello Kitty B777 at LAX. This aircraft was due to be repainted this month, and EVA announced that it would be returned to their standard livery.

WestJet has yet to return to full service at LAX

This happens to be the first A330neo that I've seen at LAX. It landed and taxied straight to Delta's maintenance ramp. The crew told me that it had just come out of COVID storage. It has since entered scheduled service. Easiest way to discern an A330neo from the older models is the blended wingtip winglets

Look at that! A collection of interesting plane photos

In addition to the published posts, I have a modest collection of posts that I've started but have, for whatever reason, never made it beyond the draft phase. This one has been one of those. I started it many months ago, but the theme got added to and stretched to the point that the original idea got lost. Meanwhile, the draft had become a large jumbled assortment of photos that I had thought interesting in some way or other. It seems a shame to leave them hidden away, so while there's no accompanying story, here they are for your perusal.

 

    

May the Fourth be with you!