Originally Posted by
happiest_at_40000
That link was great, explains everything I was wondering. Thank you. Just wish I realized I could magnify it up a lot earlier than I did. My eyes are killing me now lol
As a minor aside to whether they have to be going the same way - ATC handles some pretty complicated patterns these days. A google search will show the complicated approaches and departures for the SF Bay Area. BOS even runs crossing runways with heavy arrival/departure traffic. Planes taking of and landing at LAX in opposite directions is pretty trivial by comparison. It can be entertaining to watch airports on the flight tracker sites for a while and see the arrival/departure patterns, too.