Last month, I was much more impressed that an actual airplane officiated over the ribbon-cutting ceremony than the fact that LAX was renovating its international terminal.
Not that the fact that LAX renovating its Tom Bradley International Terminal isn't cool. I mean, there's a new lounge, they're 20% under budget (woohoo!) and apparently sometime over the summer, there was free Wi-Fi installed throughout the entire terminal. But I was a little bit more excited when Los Angeles mayor Eric Garcetti said that an airplane was going to cut the ribbon to herald in the airport's renovations. (I certainly hopes it doesn't wields huge, ginormous scissors.)
For a second, I thought airport officials were gonna pull a Zoolander and try to squeeze an airplane into the actual terminal, but then we were all conveniently ushered outside onto the tarmac. Well, apparently what the plane has to do is land at the gate, turn off its engines, where it's pulled by a tug-that vehicle thingie that drags a plane-past the ribbon so that its nose breaks it. The engines get turned off in the whole process, cause y'know, it's a little dangerous standing so close to the propellers.
The honor ended up going to a Singapore Airlines' Airbus A380, which was a great way to start the show. SQ 12 landed in LAX's gate 148 at 12:57 PM on September 18 - straight from Tokyo Narita. Apparently, it was the first time a commercial airliner has ever attempted something like this in the U.S. I must say, I'm still geeking out slightly over the whole thing even though I should have taken a video instead of a photo to record the event.
The best part? There were still passengers onboard.
