LOS ANGELES AIRPORT EXPECTS 785,000 TRAVELERS OVER LABOR DAY WEEKEND
(Los Angeles, California – August 31, 2004) Los Angeles International Airport's (LAX) busiest summer travel season since 2001 concludes with the four-day Labor Day weekend. An estimated 785,000 travelers are expected to depart and arrive on flights at LAX from Friday, Sept. 3, through Monday, Sept. 6, up from 700,000 for the same period last year. Airport officials said passenger traffic at LAX for the summer has averaged a 12 percent increase compared with the summer of 2003.
"As forecasted when the summer travel season began at the start of the Memorial Day weekend, passenger traffic at LAX has been extraordinarily strong for the past three months, and we expected the momentum to continue through Labor Day," said Kim Day, interim executive director of Los Angeles World Airports.
For the months of June, July and August of 2004, LAX expects to have served approximately 17.6 million travelers, up 12 percent from 15.7 million for the same three months in 2003. The record for summer travel was set in 2001 when 19 million travelers used LAX during the June-August period.
With airlines forecasting passenger load factors above 90 percent, travelers are advised to allow enough time before their flight to park and undergo the airline ticketing and security screening processes.
Los Angeles Airport Police and other local, state and federal law enforcement agencies will be working together to ensure significant resources are deployed in and around LAX to ensure public safety.
With families traveling for late summer vacations and taking advantage of outdoor sports and other activities, airport officials offer the following tips to help passengers speed through LAX:
- Do not pack or bring prohibited items to LAX. For a complete list, visit the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) website at
http://www.tsa.gov/public/interapp/editorial/editorial_1254.xml - Call your airline to confirm your flight and to learn how early you should arrive for check-in. Allow sufficient time for parking, transport to the terminals, check-in, and security screening of checked luggage and carry-on baggage. Information from the TSA on wait times for passenger screening can be found at http://waittime.tsa.dhs.gov/index.html. Wait times listed on the Internet are only for the passenger screening portion of the aircraft boarding process, so passengers should add in the time for security screening of checked luggage plus any time spent while parking, at airline ticket counters and in ticket counter lines.
- Bring government-issued photo identification required of all passengers over 18 years old to obtain tickets and boarding passes. Also, place identification on the outside and inside of all checked and carry-on bags.
- Watch your bags at all times and remember to retrieve all personal belongings from passenger screening checkpoints.
- Place undeveloped photographic film, film in cameras and videotape in carry-on baggage, as they may be damaged during checked-baggage security screening.
- Pack in checked luggage any item that may be used to harm a person. This includes sports equipment, home and garden tools, cooking utensils, fishing and hunting equipment, and toys that resemble weapons. Containers of hazardous materials and aerosol sprays that may burst in flight are prohibited in checked luggage.
- Clean sports equipment (such as golf clubs) of any fertilizers or other chemicals that may set off explosive-detection equipment.
- Travel light. Passengers are limited to one carry-on baggage and one personal item, such as a purse, briefcase or diaper bag.
- Avoid wearing clothing, jewelry and accessories containing metal that may set off the alarm on metal detectors.
- For more information about LAX, including real-time vehicular traffic and flight operational conditions and additional travel tips, visit the airport's website at www.lawa.org, call (310) 646-5260, or listen to AiRadio 530 AM.
