“A Ghost Town”: Driving Through an Empty LAX

I met up with a family member today in the Westchester section of Los Angeles. I was a few blocks from LAX and decided to check out the airport.

Plenty of local news stations have documented the airport’s emptiness. But seeing it in person is truly memorable.

And, frankly, a little jarring.

June Gloom arrived with a punch this morning, making the site especially gloomy. The gray clouds only enhanced the joyless atmosphere.

Here’s what I saw.

The first “whoa” moment came at the intersection of Sky Way and World Way, just before Terminal 1 (Southwest).

The Southwest terminal is usually hopping with passengers on a Friday afternoon.

But today?

The exterior of Delta’s Sky Way project seems to be coming along nicely. This is near Terminal 2.

More work is underway further down the road between Terminals 2 and 3.

Coming around the bend, we encountered a perpetually under construction Tom Bradley International Terminal (TBIT).

From there, we passed Terminal 4 (American Airlines) —

— before cruising past 6 (airline potpourri) and 7 (United).

I even had time to stop and get a quick picture of the Theme Building.

My dad grew up in the small town of Casselton, North Dakota (population: 2,508). I’m 100% serious when I say this: I’ve seen more traffic during five minutes in Casselton than I did today at LAX in about the same amount of time. (To put that into further perspective, there are times when LAX sees almost 245,000 passengers in a single day.)

Final Approach

“The place looks like a ghost town,” my wife said when I showed her the pictures.

Fridays (and around LAX) are usually insanely busy. Never did I think I’d see it like this — especially with things starting to reopen and more people feeling comfortable traveling.

I look forward to a busy LAX (words I never thought I’d write).

— Chris