Opinion: The WhaleJet cometh again
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For those of you who think the few dozen 747 jumbo jets that come to Los Angeles International Airport every day are lacking in size, the Texas-size plane from Old Europe will make its second-ever visit to LAX this week. Australian carrier Qantas will land a fully furnished Airbus A380 on Wednesday to conduct a demonstration flight carrying passengers over Southern California later in the week. This time, airport officials will dispose of the pomp and circumstance of last March’s A380 visit:
After landing on Runway 25 Left on the south side of LAX, the aircraft will taxi to the Flight Path Learning Center in the LAX Imperial Terminal at 6661 West Imperial Highway. NO ceremony is scheduled for the arrival. This is a media opportunity only.
No parties — and thank God for that. I dropped in on the celebration that accompanied last March’s A380 visit, which ended up being a surreal celebration of cognitive dissonance: airport officials on their facility’s readiness to handle the massive bird, and Airbus and airline folks on how wonderfully suited and unimposing the 1.2 million-pound A380 would be on airports like LAX. I still remember a few of the more perplexing howlers: L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said that large planes like the A380 are ‘better for our airports,’ and Airbus North America Chairman T. Allen McArtor remarked that the A380 was ‘perfectly designed ‘for LAX.
At that time last March, not a single gate at LAX could handle such a massive plane — even though the airport has long been recognized as the one that will draw the most A380 traffic in the U.S. On Airbus’ end, the celebration was for a plane slated to go into service two years behind schedule. Stripped of the the gushing praise and festivities, all that was left was a plane that symbolized the folly of the pan-European industrial policy and the ill-equipped airport that’s an embarrassment to Los Angeles. Click here to read a piece I wrote in March about the experience.
So kudos to LAX for holding off on the champagne and caviar this time around. Perhaps it’s a testament to how much more seriously L.A. officials have been handling the airport’s shortcomings lately. In fact, the last few months have been the most productive in readying LAX for its role as the A380 hub of the United States. In August, the L.A. City Council OK’d the construction of 10 gates in a brand new concourse that will be designed to handle planes the size of the A380. Breaking ground on gleaming new facility sure beats popping champagne corks while your airport chokes.
As for Wednesday, I’d recommend making the trip to LAX to spot the bird if you have time. For all the headaches it has caused, the A380 is indeed an engineering marvel and magnificent sight. The plane will land on LAX’s southernmost runway at 11:45 a.m. Click here for a list of locations that afford decent views of LAX’s airfields.