Passport to Los Angeles

Gary Toebben

December 13, 2011
From the days the Santa Fe Railroad opened Southern California to the Midwest and East Coast by connecting Chicago with Los Angeles, through the silver screen glamour years of Hollywood's golden era, and up through our latest role as a global center for entertainment, culture and restaurants, Los Angeles has a long and proud history as a worldwide tourist destination and is the preferred gateway for international travelers into the United States.

Each day dozens of overseas flights arrive at the Los Angeles International Airport (LAX). These flights collectively carry thousands of passengers, each with their own itinerary. Whether they are traveling to Los Angeles on business or pleasure, or just stopping over before their next flight to one of the other great cities across our country, they all experience one thing in common — staggering delays at U.S. Immigration and Customs.

What do you get when the world's largest origin and destination airport has only 20 out of 60 Immigration and Customs booths staffed to process more than 2,500 passengers during peak hours? After sitting on a plane for 15 hours, you are delayed another 30 to 60 minutes on the plane and then stand in line for up to three hours before you are cleared by customs officials. In some cases, you miss your next flight.  For seasoned travelers, this is a dreaded experience. For new travelers, it is their first impression of the United States.

Rolling out the red carpet for our international travelers is more than a hospitality issue — it has regional and national consequences. To bring attention to this issue, the L.A. Area Chamber and 11 other business organizations, penned a letter to Commissioner Alan Bersin, U.S. Customs and Border Protection and copied our members of Congress to urge that action be taken immediately to alleviate this crisis. Last week, 10 members of Congress joined this effort by sending their own letter to Commissioner Bersin.

In times of economic crisis, we must all do everything possible to welcome those who are looking to invest — either in starting, expanding or partnering in business, or by bringing tourism dollars to our shore.

LAX is spending $2.3 billion to build a new, state of the art, international terminal that will add 20 more Immigration and Customs booths, but the U.S. Customs and Border Protection is woefully understaffing the booths we have today. Rebuilding our nation’s economy requires partnerships across all levels of government. LAX is doing its part — now we need help from Washington, D.C.

And that's The Business Perspective.

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Comments

I'm an import/exporter and I travel extensively. LAX is embarrassing and "Third World" compared to airports in Bangkok, Hong Kong, Frankfurt, Singapore and Shanghai. The US economy is sick and we need foreign consumers more than ever. With high US unemployment and foreclosure rate, American consumers will be sitting on the sideline for some time. As the 1st stop for Asian visitors, LAX must be a beacon of light in a sea of economic mediocrity.
Posted by: Poom @ 5:53:00 pm
Gary, Keep up the great work! The LAX experience affects thousands of visitors daily (when not hourly)! and deserves your time & attention. Let's keep our 'gateway' pristine..... Beth Binger
Posted by: Beth Binger @ 12:52:00 pm
Why don't you support traditional places for tourism like Chinatown, Little Tokyo, Olvera Street, etc instead of privileging the corporate America that is represented at LAX & Nokia Live? This is the central struggle of this country. Please consider who can actually afford to travel and who you are catering to. Mom and pop businesses that are entrepreneurial versus corporate America. Guess who is winning?
Posted by: Sharon Sekhon @ 12:33:00 pm
LAX is one of the worst airports and it is truly a shame, given all the international flights arriving and departing here. It should be a source of pride. Connecting between terminals is a nightmare and it is absolutely ridiculous that passengers have to transit security more than once to change airlines. Customs and Immigration is a total mess and I have been stuck in those interminable lines for over 2 hrs myself. It is unbelievable that the check points are not adequately staffed. I truly hope the initiative in Congress will make a difference. We need to be proud of our airport, not ashamed of it.
Posted by: Julie @ 12:27:00 pm
 

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