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About LAX Airport
Los Angeles International Airport is the primary airport serving Los Angeles, California, United States. It is often referred to by its airport code LAX, with the letters pronounced individually. LAX is located in southwestern Los Angeles in the neighborhood of Westchester, 16 mi (26 km) from the downtown core.
With 61,895,548 passengers in 2007, LAX is the fifth busiest airport in the world and is served by direct flights to North America, Latin America, Europe, Asia, Oceania, and The Middle East. The airport is a major hub for United Airlines and a focus city for American Airlines, Alaska Airlines, Delta Air Lines, and Southwest Airlines.
Although LAX is the largest airport in the Greater Los Angeles Area, the region relies on a multiple airport system because of its vast size. Many of the area's most well-known attractions are closer to alternative airports than to LAX; for example, Hollywood and Griffith Park are closer to Bob Hope Airport in Burbank; while John Wayne Airport in Santa Ana is close to Disneyland, the Honda Center, Angel Stadium of Anaheim, and other Orange County attractions. Long Beach Airport is close to some of the coastal attractions known to Southern California, like Palos Verdes and Huntington Beach. LA/Ontario International Airport is closer to the Inland Empire region's cities of Riverside, Corona and San Bernardino of Southern California.
The airport occupies some 3,500 acres (5 sq mi/14 km²) of the city on the Pacific coast, about 15 mi (24 km) southwest of downtown Los Angeles. LAX is one of the most famous locations for commercial aircraft spotting, most notably at the so called "Imperial Hill" area (also known as Clutter's Park) in El Segundo from which nearly the entire South Complex of the airport can be viewed. Another famous spotting location sits right under the final approach for runways 24 L&R on a small grass lawn next to the Westchester In-N-Out Burger restaurant, and is noted as one of the few remaining locations in Southern California from which spotters may watch such a wide variety of low-flying commercial airliners from directly underneath. The airport's coastal location exposes it to fog, during which flights are occasionally diverted to LA/Ontario International Airport in Ontario, San Bernardino County 47 mi (76 km) to the east.
In 1928, the Los Angeles City Council selected 640 acres (1.00 sq mi/2.6 km²) in the southern part of Westchester as the site of a new airport for the city. The fields of wheat, barley and lima beans were converted into dirt landing strips without any terminal buildings. It was named Mines Field for William W. Mines, the real estate agent who arranged the deal. The first structure, Hangar No. 1, was erected in 1929 and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Mines Field was dedicated and opened as the official airport of Los Angeles in 1930, and the city purchased it to be a municipal airfield in 1937. The name was officially changed to Los Angeles Airport in 1941, and to Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) in 1949. Prior to that time, the main airport for Los Angeles was the "Grand Central Airport" in Glendale.
Until this time, the entire airport was located east of Sepulveda Boulevard. As the airport expanded westward to meet the Pacific Ocean, a tunnel was completed in 1953 so that Sepulveda Boulevard would pass underneath the airport's runways. It was the first tunnel of its kind.
In 1958 the architecture firm Pereira & Luckman was contracted to design a master plan for the complete re-design of the airport in anticipation of the "jet age". The plan, developed along with architects Welton Becket and Paul Williams, called for a massive series of terminals and parking structures to be built in the central portion of the property, with these buildings connected at the center by a huge steel-and-glass dome. The plan was never fully realized, and shortly thereafter the Theme Building was constructed on the site originally intended for the dome.
The distinctive white "Theme Building," constructed in 1961, resembles a flying saucer that has landed on its four legs. A restaurant that provides a sweeping view of the airport is suspended beneath two intersecting arches that form the legs. The Los Angeles City Council designated the building a cultural and historical monument in 1992. A $4 million renovation, with retro-futuristic interior and electric lighting designed by Walt Disney Imagineering, was completed before the "Encounter Restaurant" opened there in 1997. At one time, tourists and passengers were able to take the elevator up to the roof of the "Theme Building", but after the September 11 attacks, the rooftop was closed off to everyone for security reasons. It was once said the rooftop would reopen for public use, but that was determined to be a rumor.
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