LAX predicts fewer travelers for Thanksgiving and plans to open new lounge after turkey day

Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) is expecting fewer travelers than last year this Thanksgiving season, but that doesn’t mean you’ll sail through airline check-in or security lines.

LAX expects a 14% drop in travelers for the holiday travel period, which begins Friday and ends Nov. 30. LA/Ontario International Airport predicts a 30% drop, according to airport officials.

But don’t expect L.A.’s airport to be empty, especially on Friday, next Wednesday and Nov. 30 when flights are 90% or fully booked, according to a release from the Los Angeles World Airways.

Officials still recommend getting to the airport an hour to hour and a half for domestic flights, two hours for flights to Mexico. During peak travel hours in the holiday period–6 to 9 a.m., 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. and 7 to 10 p.m.–the recommendation increases to two hours before domestic flights and three hours before international flights.

Coming soon: LAX will open reLAX Lounge at the Tom Bradley International Terminal, at 8 a.m. Dec. 4. For $25, you get three hours of refreshments as well as wifi, fax, copying and printing services. The new lounge will be open 8 a.m. to 1 a.m. daily.

–Mary Forgione, Los Angeles Times staff writer

[Photo: ReLAXLounge]

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This entry was posted on Thursday, November 20, 2008 at 2:59 pm by Mary Forgione and is filed under Airline travel, California, Los Angeles. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a comment, or trackback from your own site.