Los Angeles International Airport A Hub For Travel And Transportation

Los Angeles International Airport, the main airport in Los Angeles, CA, is best known by its airport abbreviation, LAX. It is located in city's southwestern area, about 15 miles away from downtown Los Angeles.

LAX takes care of more 'origin and destination' passenger traffic than every other airport in the world. It also is the globe's fifth-busiest airport when measured by passenger traffic, and 11th by cargo traffic. In 2004 some 60 million passengers were taken care of and more than two million tons of freight. Not surprisingly, it is the busiest airport in California.

In overseas passengers, LAX is America's second-busiest airport, behind only New York's JFK International Airport. It is the main regional hub for United Airlines, and the secondary hub for Delta.

United Airlines flies to the most destinations, followed by Delta, then American Airlines. United also sends out the most international flights to the Pacific, while it, Air France, and Lufthansa share the lead with destinations in Europe. Delta has the most flights to Latin America.

The airport is situated on 3,425 acres, and is one of the most prominent locations for commercial aircraft watching, most notably at Clutter's Park in El Segundo, where the entire southern region of the airport can be watched. Another spotting location sits right under the final approach for one of the many runways, on a grass lawn next to a local burger restaurant. Spotters may view a wide variety of low-flying commercial airliners from directly underneath.

Though LAX is the largest airport in Los Angeles, the region has multiple airport systems because of its tremendous size. A good number of the area's top tourist attractions are closer in proximity to airports other than LAX. For example, Griffith Park and Hollywood are nearer to Burbank's Bob Hope Airport, while John Wayne Airport in Santa Ana is nearby to Disneyland and Angel Stadium of Anaheim. Long Beach Airport is in proximity to many of southern Los Angeles' coastal attractions.

Matt Paolini is a travel writer for CityBook, the family-safe Online Yellow Pages, which carries an extensive directory on Los Angeles freight, trucking and logistics.