Happy New Year!

January sunrise

This was supposed to have published a couple of months ago, and clearly it got stuck in the Drafts folder. So, from the better late than never department, a somewhat belated happy 2023!

I was going to start 2023 with another round of construction photos. But for the sake of orientation, I'm including shots of each of the terminals as seen from the control tower, in numerical order. The terminals at LAX are numbered in the order that they are encountered by vehicles entering the airport. Because the control tower is basically in the center of the terminal complex, and as all traffic enters the terminal complex from the east, this results in a series of photos taken in a counter-clockwise direction. These were all taken during the first week of 2023:

 

Looking northeast from the control tower: Terminal One. The parking lot just beyond is the current location of taxi and ride share pick up, and the future site of Terminal Zero

Due north of the tower: Terminal 2

To the northwest: Terminal 3 and the north end of the TBIT, along with the P2B and P3 parking garages

Looking west from the control tower is the TBIT: Tom Bradley International Terminal, aka Terminal B. The flat building beyond the TBIT is the MSC, or Midfield Satellite Concourse, aka West Gates at Tom Bradley. The city ramp tower can be seen at the south end (Left, in this photo) of the MSC. The big hangar just south of the MSC is American Airlines maintenance. The future American Eagle terminal will be in the empty ramp area between the hangar and the MSC.

Southwest: Terminal 4 and the south end of the TBIT

Terminals 5 and 4

Terminal 6

Looking southeast from the control tower: Terminal 7, in the center of the photo, with Terminal 8 behind, and the American Eagle terminal just beyond the palm trees. Planned Terminal 9 will take the place of the current American Eagle terminal as well as the buildings just beyond Terminal 8. The big white hangar just beyond the American Eagle terminal is United Airlines maintenance

Looking east from the control tower. In the foreground is the Theme building, currently the location of the LAX USO. Beyond are the P1 and P7 parking garages.

Gratuitous airplane photo: an Emirates A380 follows a Lufthansa B747-8 on Taxiway E, both on their way to Runway 24 Left for departure. In the foreground, a WestJet B737-700 has just pushed from Terminal 2. The Hollywood sign is barely visible in the background.

 

 

 

 

 

Final B747

Last night, the final B747 rolled out of the final assembly building in Everett, Washington. During the 53-year production run, Boeing built 1,574 B747s. Pan Am was the launch customer, with their first B747 entering service in 1970. Delta was the last US passenger carrier to operate B747s, retiring them in 2017. At LAX we do still see B747 passenger operations with Lufthansa and Korean, both of whom bring in B747-8s. Korean uses the B747-8 in both passenger and cargo operations, and we have a good many other cargo operators bringing B747s through LAX. The final B747 built is a cargo variant, and will be going to Atlas Air. I expect that it will come out of the paint shop looking much like its sister ship in the photo above, and hopefully we will get to see it pass through LAX once it enters service next year.

 

Dual taxi in the D-9 alley

A recent comment asked about dual-taxi in the D-9 alley. This photo illustrates the D-9 alley with a dual-taxi operation taking place. The alley is marked with a taxi centerline, as well as east and west lines. This feature allows two flows of traffic in the alley, such as seen here, with one coming in and another heading out. It is also possible to have two lines of aircraft outbound or inbound. The restriction on this operation is determined by the aircraft types involved; A320-series and B737-series are the largest types that can safely use the east and west lines. Anything larger, such as a B757, has to use the center line:

 

 Here's another shot that better shows the three taxi lines:

 

 

Another look at ITA's "ghost" livery

I have to admit that I like ITA's paint scheme. Nowadays, nearly all air carriers have gone to boring white airplanes with a logo on the tail. ITA is one of the notable exceptions, with their bright blue Airbuses that sport the Italian tricolor stripes on the tail. The inspiration for the blue comes from the Italian national football team, the Azzurri (the Blues), who wear blue in honor of the House of Savoy. Besides the tricolor stripes, the tail section also features a faint pattern that is reminiscent of a Louis Vuitton handbag. I know that's not what it actually is, but I have yet to find any official reference to it beyond the photos in the company's press materials. This pattern is hard to see, even in daylight, and I've had very little success catching it with the camera. These shots show it, but I've borrowed an official photo that shows it much more clearly.