On Monday, May 19, 2003, at 01:43 PM, Alireza Alivandivafa wrote: > Security, unless in T1 at peak WN times, is a breeze at LAX. In > addition, > they whisk you through if your flight is imminent. Sure, but wouldn't it be nicer not to have to do it again at all? It's still a pain to take your laptop out of it's case, take off your shoes, etc. The problem is really rather simple. LAX is not designed as a hub for connections. Multiple small, independent terminals is great for O&D traffic since it shouldn't take as long to get from ticket counter to gate or gate to baggage claim. On the other hand, when you have to go from one to the other, it takes longer because you have an additional time variable (reclear security) to factor in. And my brother who was there last month just told me that the inter-terminal connections for the south side are now closed. He was in terminal 5 flying Delta and the signs said closed; a friend of his flying United out of 7 tried to meet up with someone else flying Continental out of 6 (which United and Delta also use, or at least used to) but could not get over there. ATL, as previously mentioned, is a great hub airport. You can go from any gate to any other gate without reclearing security, including from one airline to another. On the other hand, for the O&D passenger, it can be quite a journey from ticket counter to gate or gate to baggage claim. The T-gates passengers have it pretty good, but the international E concourse is way out there. Fortunately the subway works great. TSA, however, likely hates this, since a security "breach" means they have to evacuate the whole airport. Independent terminals make it easier to handle an evacuation since much of the rest of the airport can keep functioning. As was recently discussed, however, the best locations for hub airports also tend to be the biggest O&D markets, ie the success of ORD and DFW versus the failure of RDU. Alireza, please remember to include something of the post you're replying too; Listserv is *not* threaded. If AOL won't do it for you, find something better. :) -- David Mueller / HNL dmueller7@xxxxxxxxx http://www.quanterium.com