Are there any plans to relocate the American Airlines hangar? It blocks several gates at the southwestern end of the existing West Gates at Tom Bradley International Terminal concourse.

Not currently. Under the original MSC South plan, the MSC North would have been extended directly to the south and the concourse would have been basically a mirror, although slightly shorter, of MSC North. That plan required American to relocate its high bay hanger (and LAWA to pay for the relocation).

Due to cost constraints, in 2019 LAWA scrapped the original plan and in its place decided on a much less expensive MSC South "plan B" which will keep costs down by only adding 8 Group III (B737 and A320) aircraft gates for domestic departures. Because the MSC North was built with the original plan in mind, the new MSC South concourse now has that awkward left hand turn before heading south precisely because it has to avoid the American high bay hanger area (which LAWA will no longer have to pay to move). The MSC South concourse will also be lower to the ground than the MSC North terminal because it will not need the separate "sterile" levels for International arrivals.

When LAWA originally announced this revised MSC South plan in 2019 it was widely described as a "temporary" solution with the idea that at some point in the future they would tear down the "temporary" concourse and replace it with a originally intended MSC North-like concourse. If that ever comes to pass, at that point they will tear down the American high-bay hanger. However with the progress on Terminal 9, which supposedly is going to get final approval sometime this year, it seems likely that the MSC South concourse will now be as permanent addition as any other concourse at LAX.

It will be interesting to see what airlines(s) actually end up using MSC South. Under the original plan, American was to temporarily relocate their EAAgles Nest Regional Jet operation to MSC South which would in turn free up the space for Terminal 9 to begin construction. With MSC South now scheduled for Q2 2025 completion (a 9 month schedule slip since last Sept) and Terminal 9 construction potentially starting next year, it would seem like American will have to find another home for their regional jet operation (and it won't be in terminal 4 because that will be under construction until 2026). My guess is that Spirit may ultimately move to MSC South as it that would free up all of Terminal 5 for American and they could then re-gate the east side of terminal 5 to support their regional jets with maybe only the loss of 1 or 2 effective gates.

I hate, absolutely hate, this new concourse. I had a Hawaiian Airlines flight depart from here, and the walk over was way too long and unnecessary.

From the LAX August Monthly Construction and Modernization Highlights email:

Maybe a good time to point out that LAWA officially retired "Terminal 2" from its interactive map. It will slowly remove other signage and maps showing refences to "Terminal 2".

It is Terminal 3 which has two concourses - one of them being the former T2. The North side will go from T1 to T3 and then TBIT.

I imagine once AA is done with its T4 and T5 rebuild, it will similarly be rebranded as a single terminal with two concourses.

LAX Map

first wagon arrived..

https://ktla.com/news/local-news/new...-car-unveiled/

they really should change the spin on this from "future of transportation" to "we have cable" or smth equally humble.. it took 20 years of planning not because of some groundbreaking features...:rolleyes:

With MSC South not being built for wide bodies, sounds like the international bus gates are now going to be around indefinitely then. :(

Might Terminal 9 provide the international wide body capacity that is being lost by building MSC South for narrowbodies?

No. That will be UA's terminal.

David

I thought the plan was for all the *A carriers to move to T9 as well.

LAWA can propose the move and it seems logical but ultimately it is up to the likes of LH, OZ, NH, BR, NZ to decide if they want to do it. The issue is LAX is mostly O&D station for for foreign airlines. They don't rely on onward connection on UA to fill their flights so some will probably opt to stay in TBIT.

T9 is supposed to have 12 widebody gates or 18 narrow body gates. It's big enough to probably host the entire UA LAX ops which will free up T7 and 8. Or if LAWA keeps T9 as shared use like TBIT, then it will have plenty of capacity to handle all the *A carriers.

LAX speeds up electric ambitions with 1,300 new EV chargers

What they don't mention in the press release is 75% of these charger spots are occupied by non-EVs and there is zero enforcement to tow or cite those cars and trucks.

75%? Do you have a source for that figure? That does not match my observation in the economy parking structure last month (I drive a PHEV and reserved and used a spot with a level 2 charger).

The last 3 times I've been in the garage myself, driving around and looking for a parking spot with with a charger - I lost count of how many pickup trucks and SUVs were jammed into those spots. No enforcement at all - no towing, no tickets. If they won't enforce the parking rules, what's the purpose of putting in the chargers?