CHANGES IN U.S. CUSTOMS AND BORDER PROTECTION STAFFING HOURS EXPECTED TO IMPACT SOME ARRIVING LAX PASSENGERS
Upcoming changes in U.S. Customs & Border Protection’s (CBP’s) summer hours of operation at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) will result in passengers on some international arriving flights being bussed from Terminal 2 to the Tom Bradley International Terminal (TBIT/Terminal B) for immigration and customs inspection. Airport officials are advising the public that the added bussing operations may cause delays for passengers on the impacted flights. CBP’s new hours of operation will begin Sunday, May 15, 2016 as follows:
- TBIT (Terminal B): 6:00 a.m. – midnight (no change)
- Terminal 2: 11:00 a.m. – 9:00 p.m.
Passengers on international flights that arrive outside CBP’s operating hours at Terminal 2 will be bussed to TBIT for processing. Terminal 2 is the second busiest international terminal at LAX, serving more than 5.1 million total passengers in 2015, of which more than 4.1 million were international and more than one million were domestic travelers. Airport officials have been informed by CBP that the modified/reduced operational hours at LAX are due to an effort to create staffing efficiencies and to improve operational issues.
CBP’s modified/reduced hours of operation will require LAX Airport Operations to bus passengers of approximately 18daily flights. An estimated 2,700 arriving passengers may be affected.
LAX officials have implemented several measures in coordination with the affected airlines and their ground-services contractors to mitigate possible delays and inconvenience that international arriving passengers may experience, as well as to minimize possible confusion among meeters-and-greeters unsure about which terminal arriving passengers will exit once cleared from federal inspection. Some of the mitigation efforts include:
· Temporarily hiring approximately a dozen contracted bus drivers to assist with additional bussing requirements.
· Installing 28 additional Automated Passport Control (APC) kiosks this month in the Tom Bradley International Terminal, which increased the number of APCs in that terminal to 68. In addition, 12 APC kiosks were installed in Terminal 2. The kiosks cost $36,000 each and were first installed at LAX in 2014. A total of 230 APCs are planned to be installed in terminals with international flights. LAWA is investing more than $12 million in this technology to improve efficiency and the international guest experience. APCs allow international travelers, including family groups, to submit their customs declaration form and biographic information electronically, thereby reducing the time they spend with a CBP officer. U.S. and Canadian citizens arriving from abroad, as well as travelers from 38 Visa Waiver Countries who are also registered with CBP’s Electronic System for Travel Authorization (ESTA) program, are eligible to use the kiosks.
· Coordinating with impacted airlines to ensure flight-information displays located in their terminals’ arrivals areas are updated immediately and announcements made over the public-address systems so meeters-and-greeters know which terminal arriving passengers will exit.
· Ensuring airline customer-service representatives, LAX Guest Experience personnel, and volunteers in the public information booths are prepared for the changes and can assist passengers and meeters-and-greeters.
· Communicating the CBP modified/reduced staffing hours to airport-wide stakeholders, including airlines and their ground service providers, concessionaires, ground transportation services, partner agencies, etc.
Airport officials also encourage frequent international travelers to enroll in CBP’s Global Entry Program to expedite them through customs and immigration inspection. The $100 registration for Global Entry lasts five years and includes free registration in TSA Prev ($80 savings) for expedited domestic passenger security screening. For more information on Global Entry, visit www.cbp.gov or on TSA Prev, visit www.tsa.gov.
About Los Angeles International Airport (LAX)
LAX is the seventh busiest airport in the world and third in the United States. LAX served more than 74.9 million passengers in 2015. LAX offers 692 daily nonstop flights to 85 cities in the U.S. and 928 weekly nonstop flights to 67 cities in 34 countries on 59 commercial air carriers. LAX ranks 14th in the world and fifth in the U.S. in air cargo tonnage processed, with more than 2.1 million tons of air cargo valued at over $86.9 billion. An economic study based on 2014 operations reported LAX generated 620,610 jobs in Southern California with labor income of $37.3 billion and economic output (business revenues) of more than $126.6 billion. This activity added $6.2 billion to local and state revenues and $8.7 billion in federal tax revenues. The study also reported that LAX’s ongoing capital-improvement program creates an additional 121,640 annual jobs with labor income of $7.6 billion and economic output of $20.3 billion, $966 million in state and local taxes, and $1.6 billion in federal tax revenues.
LAX is part of a system of three Southern California airports – along with LA/Ontario International and Van Nuys general aviation – that are owned and operated by Los Angeles World Airports, a proprietary department of the City of Los Angeles that receives no funding from the City’s general fund.
For more information about LAX, please visit www.lawa.aero/lax or follow on Twitter @flyLAXAirport, on Facebook at www.facebook.com/LAInternationalAirport , and on YouTube at www.YouTube.com/laxairport1 . Information about LAX’s ongoing multi-billion-dollar LAX Modernization Program, as well as tips and shortcuts to help navigate LAX during construction, are available at www.LAXisHappening.com.
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