Los Angeles area airports... (1 Viewer)

[Henry Gale]

Planning a trip to Los Angeles in a few weeks and since I'll be renting a car and plan to visit several locations in the area....is there a good reason to choose Ontario, LAX or Van Nuys... etc. airports?
LAX is the only one I've ever been to and the last time was over 35 years ago.
Nothing has changed has it?

 

[Michael_K_Sr]

Nope, not a thing...

 

[Joe S]

Better to choose one of the "smaller" airports to avoid the traffic hassles of LAX area. Maybe Burbank or John Wayne Airport, depending on your ultimate destination.

 

[Michael Reuben]

One of the many reasons I fly JetBlue is because they do not fly to LAX. Long Beach or Burbank are infinitely preferable, even with the extra driving from Long Beach. LAX is a nightmare and should be avoided at all costs.

M.

 

[Paul D G]

I don't think LAX is that bad. I used to live out there and have made many trips to LAX; if not flying myself, then picking people up. The only issue is traffic is a bitch unless you time it correctly.

I've been to Long Beach once and it's a tiny little thing. I would imagine flying there would be the quickest out. But if you need to rent a car I'm not sure there are a lot of options.

Personally, I'd pick which ever is closer/cheaper to your final destination.

-paul

 

[Scott L]

Last time I visited friends in LA I flew into LAX. Was trouble-free for the most part.

My flight out was at Long Beach, but due to traffic we missed our flight. : So echoing above, it just depends where your destination is, LAX isn't a total nightmare (from my limited experience anyway).

 

[DaveF]

I don't know if LAX is the best choice for your destination. But I've not found it a difficult airport to fly into.

I've flown into LAX about 6 times in the past 12 months for business, getting rental cars and staying at LAX-local hotels. I've found it busy but easy to deal with. The traffic right around the airport has not been bad when I was there.

If I've got LA business, I have no concerns about flying into LAX. And it's easy to drive from there up to, say Malibu or Pasadena. Likewise, I've driven from Pasadena to LAX on a Friday night, arriving two hours before my flight to drop off the car and get to the gate. I've also driven from near Malibu early Sunday morning to catch a flight. No troubles in any of these cases so far.

 

[Scott_lb]

When I fly into the L.A. area I either choose LAX or SNA (Orange County/Santa Ana). When taking traffic into account, they are pretty far away from one another. I'd choose the airport depending on where you plan to go on your trip. By the sounds of it, LAX is likely the best choice. Just try not to breathe after getting off the plane (lots of jet fumes!).

 

[Paul D G]

SNA is about an hour from LAX so unless your destination is that far south I'd stick with LAX. Long Beach is in between SNA and LAX.

-paul

 

[Grant B]

Long Beach is great; you can drop off a car, get a boarding pass & go thru security in 15 minutes.... 2 more minutes to the gate .
AND Jetblue goes there.AmWest, Americam & a couple more,
Great Deco Bar up stairs & it's wired for internet.
I went thru it 47 times last year and was late more than a few minutes only once!

Add a extra hour or 2 for LAX or Orange....Ontario is weird on security: they check you at the bottom of the escalator and then again at the top??!?
(Look! Terrorists are living under the stairs!!)