LOS ANGELES AIRPORT EXPECTS AIR TRAVEL TO BEGIN RETURNING TO NORMAL ON TUESDAY; ISSUES UPDATE ON AIRPORT CONDITIONS
6:00 pm PST -- Monday, October 27, 2003

Los Angeles World Airports officials expect air travel to begin returning to normal on Tuesday with the announced re-opening early tomorrow morning of a Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) radar facility north of San Diego that controls all flights into and out of Southern California's airports.

At 6:00 p.m. PST, Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) is open and fully operational. However, the airport was still experiencing flight delays and cancellations due to the continued disruption of operations at the FAA radar facility.

The FAA's Southern California Terminal Radar Approach Control (TRACON) facility at Miramar was evacuated Sunday morning, when it was threatened by one of the San Diego wildfires.

A check of major airlines late this afternoon indicates about 250 inbound and outbound cancellations are now expected for the entire day -- or 15 percent of the airport's daily 1,700 operations (landings and takeoffs). No flight cancellations are reported by the nearly 40 foreign air carriers at the Tom Bradley International Terminal.

Airlines were selectively canceling flights today and combining flights where possible in order to reduce the load on the air traffic control system, while still getting travelers to their destinations. Arrival and departure delays varied throughout the day with some delays of up to several hours.

Most of the departure cancellations were to destinations within California. This has resulted in rental car companies at LAX reporting very brisk business in car rentals.

LAX officials advise passengers to check with their airlines to ensure their flight's schedule before coming to the airport. Airline phone numbers are available in public telephone directories and most major airlines have current flight status information available on their Internet websites.