Airline crews call LAX airport parking lot home

[Better Believe It]

Airline crews call LAX parking lot home
by Karen Datko
July 23, 2009

Here's the strangest proof we've seen to date that the airline industry ain't what it used to be. According to the Los Angeles Times, airline pilots and other employees are living in a collection of 100 campers and RVs in Parking Lot B of Los Angeles International Airport, less than 3,500 feet from the south runway.

It has the feel of a modern-day shantytown, replete with the sounds and smell of jets coming in for a landing at the nation's third busiest airport. Parking the motor home at a Wal-Mart sounds glamorous compared with this.

The LA Times reports:

It is a drab expanse of crumbling gray asphalt, approach lights, chain-link fencing and rows of beige and white RVs -- some battered, others grand. A splash of color comes from the red and white blooms of about a dozen rose bushes along the colony's northern edge.

Why are pilots and other airline workers no longer sharing LA apartments with colleagues, which is what they used to do so they wouldn't have to commute long distances to their primary homes between flights? Pay cuts are part of the shrinkage that has plagued the troubled industry.

http://blogs.moneycentral.msn.com/smartspending/archive/2009/07/23/airline-crews-call-lax-parking-lot-home.aspx


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A posted comment by an airline pilot:

I am an airline pilot who tries to avoid commuting, but it comes at a cost...in the past decade I have moved 6 times, had 10 different base changes, flew for 4 different airlines and because of this can not tie down to a certain area without getting stuck having to commute. So as a Pilot that doesn't want to move you just have to root into an area and face the fact of commuting. Outsiders to the airline industry will never understand. Most commuters are away from home most of their lives and may just make it back home to spend a day or two and then back to work. They are lucky if they get 5 to 6 full days at home each month with family. Before you go critizing the whiny pilots...Please look at the shoes that they walk in. And not all pilots are making big bucks. I work for a Major and make about $40,000 before taxes. That is with a 4 year Business degree, years of flight training to obtain 12 certificates and ratings, 2 to 3 years building flight time as a flight instructor to make it into the airline industry, and years of flying for low paying regionals to make it to the Majors. Many, Many pilots have stories like these. The sad thing is that are some that have been furloughed and will have to start over again at the bottom of another seniority list with entry level pay which is very low considering the responsibility. That is why many are forced to live in crash pads or campers in airport parking lots. Don't criticize people for finding ways to deal with the elements...sometimes it really is necessary to get by in this career path.

[Parche]

1. commuter airline pilots

make around 20-25,000 a year if lucky...

[rzemanfl]

2. I want my pilot to make $150,000 a year, the same amount I want

the CEO of my insurance company to make. This country is totally fucked up.

[Gidney N Cloyd]

5. Yes! $150 thou PLUS their Air Force pension.

We need skills and we should pay for them.

[Liberal_in_LA]

3. NPR did a segment on this. What surprised me is that Airline Mechanics are living in the lot

They were talking as if they made minimum wage. I wondered what the salary for an airline mechanic is.

[izquierdista]

4. Not enough for L.A. real estate

Average price for a house in Lawndale (reasonably close to LAX, but not a "beach community") -- $513K. Even at $150,000/yr, unless you have a hefty down payment, you're not going to be able to afford a house close to work.

[rzemanfl]

6. I didn't factor regional variations in the cost of living in. How the

hell does anyone in California afford anything?

[izquierdista]

8. Inheritance

California had reasonable prices in the early '70s. Since then, lots of wealth creation has gone into dirt, excuse me, "real estate". I see this as one of the problems of poorly regulated capitalism. To counter bubble economies with their booms and busts, there is a sector of the economy apart from that which is deemed "safe". People just keep pouring money into it, driving up the prices, not asking any questions about actual real value, just hoping that it will be worth more when they sell it. Everyone, whether they rent or own, has to participate in this pouring of money into real estate. Everyone, that is except the homeless, or those like in the article, who camp out.

Few people see the connection of this housing problem with the lack of health care, but think about it for a minute. If, instead of bidding up the price of real estate, that wealth had gone to building free hospitals and clinics and medical care, and to keep UC tuition low, and to public transportation, well, California would be a much different place. But thanks in part to Prop 13, wealth just keeps pouring into real estate, and the state's ability to use that wealth for the benefit of its citizens is crippled.

[rzemanfl]

10. What happened in Florida was that when Bush cut taxes on the

high income folks, they decided the best investment for the extra $26K a year was to service the debt on one or more Florida condos they would have as sure fire investments. All the reasonably priced beach motels were torn down to make way for now empty condos. Now even if a person with a moderate income was still able to vacation here, the place they went to year after year is gone-often just a flat spot on the sand with cyclone fence around it. There is a large beach front building here that used to be rented to retirees who could afford the rent, it was condoed a few years ago and now has 10% occupancy.

Thanks George and John Ellis.

[onethatcares]

11. I was at Treasure Island in the area of St. Petersburg yesterday

and was amazed at the number of eastern Europeans vacationing there. What the hell, I can't afford to spend a weekend in Treasure Island and I live but 5 miles away from the place.

[SoCalDem]

9. Many have been juggling credit card balances & working extra jobs

until recently, when credit cards have been clamping down.. That's why sdo many are being foreclosed on:(

[Liberal_in_LA]

13. Bigger portion of paycheck goes towards mortgage.

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

7. At the very least let them park in Palisades Del Rey (aka Surfridge)

Back in the 60's LAX was having problems with locals along the coast so the city took Palisades Del Rey by eminent domain and demolished all the houses - but the streets and utilities remain intact.

One of my close friends is an ex-commercial pilot and at the age of thirty was still living with her parents, she stuck it out long enough to get her upgrade to captain and quit soon there after to fly corporate jets. Better money, better working conditions and much more respect. She hated the TSA, hated the airline and above all else hated the union.

[jmowreader]

12. If I was single and a pilot, I'd do it

If my job could just up and say, "next week your base is 1200 miles from here, be there a day early," there's no doubt I'd live in a camper.