KJC

A couple weeks ago, I was on a Southwest flight from SMF to BWI that stopped in LAX for a half hour. As we taxied toward terminal 1, I saw a Lan Chile A340 parked at its gate at the TBIT (That's "Tom Bradley International Terminal" for you poor fools who are unfamiliar with LAX ). A half hour later, as we were taking off from 24L, I saw the same Lan Chile A340, parked at one of a series of small white buildings (each with its own jetway) located to the west of the main terminals. I've seen these buildings before on the many occasions I've flown into/ out of LAX, and I've always wondered about them. Does anyone know what they are for, and why the Lan Chile A340 was parked at TBIT, then later at one of these buildings?

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The white zones are for the immediate loading and unloading of passengers only. No parking!

NYCAAer

Just a theory- most long-haul South American flights operate at night, so the Lan-Chile A340 may have arrived that morning at LAX, would sit all day there, and then would leave for Santiago in the evening. The plane may have been moved from the int'l terminal while it was sitting all day because gate space is precious, especially at a terminal where there is a customs facility.

It makes sense to tow the plane to a non-customs gate during such a long sit-time for other arriving int'l flights. The same thing happens in South America in places like Buenos Aires, Santiago or Sao Paulo. Planes from AA, UA, DL and CO sit all day at those airports after arriving in the morning, before returning to the U.S. in the evening.

Why they don't turn around the planes and have afternoon departures back to the U.S. is beyond me, because it sure cuts down on aircraft productivity.

Tracon Doug

Those are the "remotes", Kevin. Number one reason for him to be there is lack of space at Bradley. If, for example the turnaround time for him was, say, 6 hours, the space at Bradley has always been precious (read: tight).

On a lighter note, that is also the bomb threat/hijack area at LAX. Ever notice all the randomly spaced trees, built for climbing, out there??

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KJC

Thanks, guys.

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The white zones are for the immediate loading and unloading of passengers only. No parking!

Cadavre on a stick

The same thing applies to the Cathay and EVA flight that departs SFOh after midnight. The flight arrives in the afternoon and the ground crew moves the aeroplane to a remote parking stand not far from the International Terminal where it sits for a cuppla hours. If you roll around SFOh in the late afternoon, early evening, you'll catch the EVA -400 and -400, or A340-300, Cathay Pacific sitting across from the South Pier o' the International Terminal. Before 9-11 this was a great spotting area. You could roll through there without a boarding pass and spot the wonders of Philippine, EVA, KLM, Virgin, British, Allegro, China, Nothwest, Alitalia, Air Farce, and Swiss without hassle. Too bad as those days are past.

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CAL 757-300

Depending on when you arrive at LAX Bradley is full and they need the planes out of there as quickly as possible. When I flew HKG-LAX last summer, our flight was an hour late and therefore missed its gate slot there. We ended up at the remote facility that you described, they unloaded the plane and then bused us to US Customs. It provided for some great plane spottting!

nutsXplanes

Lan arrives around 7 in the morning and leaves after 12 Noon.
The reason was mentioned above. It's all about money.