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Tuesday, Feb. 5, 2008 | Glimpse of Lindbergh looks nice, almost what you would see in a new modern airport. Why are we remodeling the newer Terminal 2? Couldn’t this same concept be done for older Terminal 1? How about doing both terminals and having a tram or at least a moving sidewalk like other airports.
Then you can easily move to any part of the airport. My “BIG” question is” I thought we lacked in runway space and that is why we needed a new airport. This new modernization does not address that issue. Is the lack of a 2nd runway a hindrance or not? I flew out in December on a Santa Ana morning. Small planes (including Southwest) were taking off to the west. Large planes took off over the city. Every few minutes a plane would land coming in over the city. I did not feel comfortable that morning when we took off. That same morning our Delta plane could not get to Terminal 2 for the 8:00 a.m. flight, there was no room to taxi over. We finally took off well after 9:00. As discussed last year is this just “lipstick on a pig”. How about before spending $650 million on this, we might look at building “New” terminals east of the airport, connecting with Interstate 5 and Pacific Highway, having the trolley right there to drop off other flyers. Move out all those warehouses and parking lots. Build parking structures near Pacific Highway. If both terminals were mover east to the Pacific Highway side would there be enough room for a 2nd runway. Maybe one for large planes and another for smaller planes? How about having PCH going under part of the new terminal arrangement? I think you need to look at the whole footprint west of the 5 and see what could be done?