Airport Check-in: Some airlines don't love LAX
Roger Yu, USA TODAY, 1/15/2007 (excerpted)
ANCHORAGE: Check-in gets faster for Alaska fliers
Alaska Airlines has made check-ins speedier at Ted Stevens Anchorage International by redesigning space, and it plans to do the same elsewhere.
In 2004, the Seattle-based carrier knocked out its traditional ticket counter at Anchorage and replaced it with a more open check-in area consisting of automated check-in kiosks, bag-drop-off podiums and conveyor belts. It left some smaller counters for traditional check-in.
Airline employees are stationed among the podiums to assist customers.
"We're decoupling check-in and the bag-dropping process," says spokeswoman Amanda Tobin Bielawski.
The airline says the average check-in time in Anchorage has been cut by 50% from the days of the traditional check-in. The carrier says it will spend $18 million to install the system on a larger scale at Seattle-Tacoma by the end of the year.
Sea-Tac will have 54 bag-drop podiums and 50 automated kiosks. The remodeling will include check-in for passengers of Horizon Air, a subsidiary of Alaska.
LOS ANGELES: Showdown at LAX
The Los Angeles airports commission, which runs LAX, voted last week to buy out the gate leases held by several airlines. If the controversial plan succeeds, airport officials say, travelers should see more flights and carriers at LAX in the future. Airlines say they'll resist the move.
The commission voted to spend $154 million to buy out leases that would give it full control of LAX Terminals 2 and 5. The vote has angered the current tenant carriers, who say the airport could be breaking lease terms.
LAX says its current arrangements with airline tenants are too limiting.
It says it has had to turn down requests from international airlines and low-fare carriers to start or add flights because five dominant carriers — Continental, Northwest, United, American and Delta — control a majority of gates at LAX through long-term leases.
LAX spokeswoman Nancy Castles says the terminals are underused.
Delta controls Terminal 5. Northwest, Hawaiian Airlines and Air Canada control Terminal 2.
The carriers "are evaluating all legal options," says Robert Span, an attorney who represents them.
LAX believes it can legally take over the gates if it buys back the bonds the airlines used to improve the terminals and pays the bonds off.
The latest tussle comes on the heels of LAX angering the carriers in Terminals 1 and 3 by raising their rent.
SYRACUSE, N.Y.: Free wireless throughout the airport
Free Internet access is becoming more common. Syracuse International launched wireless Internet service throughout the airport this month. The free service is operated by Time Warner Cable.
BALTIMORE: Restaurant delivers wine to gates
Customers at Baci Bar & Grill, a restaurant before the checkpoints in the Southwest Terminal at Baltimore/Washington International, can now have the restaurant deliver bottles of wine to their boarding gate. Limits on liquids prevent travelers from taking the bottles through security.