John Wayne Airport ready for Thanksgiving crowds

Just in time for the holiday crowds, officials at John Wayne Airport in Orange County say they have repaired a faulty baggage-handling system at a new terminal that opened last week as part of a $543-million expansion project.

The pressure was on at the airport because the new terminal -- Terminal C -- opened Monday with a baggage system that had failed to pass a certification test by the Transportation Security Administration. The system combines the conveyor belts installed by the airport with the baggage screening machines of the TSA.

Without TSA certification, the system was shut down, and passengers traveling through Terminal C on Southwest Airlines or Frontier Airlines were forced to hike over to Terminal B to fetch their luggage.

But airport officials had good news Friday. They announced that the baggage-handling system had been certified and would be operating by Sunday.

At least 386,000 Southern Californians are expected to fly for the holiday weekend, a 1.9% increase over last year, according to a forecast from the Auto Club of Southern California.

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Photo: The new terminal at John Wayne Airport. Credit: Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times

Long Beach World Trade Center sale stalled

Plans by the Port of Long Beach to buy the Long Beach World Trade Center office complex have stalled.

The due diligence period of the planned transaction expired last week without the Board of Harbor Commissioners agreeing to complete the $130-million deal, effectively killing it.

Commissioners earlier split 2 to 2 on a vote with President Susan Wise abstaining because she and her husband lease space in the Ocean Boulevard tower.

The owners of the trade center, Legacy Partners, asked the state’s Fair Political Practices Commission to rule on whether Wise’s recusal must stand and are waiting for a decision.

“If she is allowed to vote and she votes no, we’re big boys and will move on,” said Greg Hall, a managing director at Legacy. “We just wanted to see a fair vote.”

Legacy is not marketing the 575,000-square-foot building to other potential buyers, he said.

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Photo: Long Beach World Trade Center. Credit: Legacy Partners

Prices for Thanksgiving travel and feast going up

If you plan on traveling for the Thanksgiving holiday, the cost of your trip is likely to be higher than last year, and the financial pain could strike almost every aspect of your vacation. Even the cost of the turkey dinner.

The average airfare for travel to the top 10 most popular destinations in the U.S. for Nov. 23 to Nov. 27 has jumped 11% over last year, according to an analysis by Orbitz, one of the nation’s busiest travel websites. That means the average round-trip ticket for Thanksgiving rose to $373 from about $340.

Flights to New York for the holiday will rise the most, jumping 20% over last year, with an average round-trip price of $342, according to Orbitz. Round-trip flights to Los Angeles will increase 12% to $429, according to the travel website.

Meanwhile, the average hotel rate for the nation’s top 25 destinations for Nov. 24 to Nov. 28 is expected to rise nearly 5% to $126.35 a night, according to a report by Travelclick, a New York company that provides e-commerce products and services to the hotel industry.

New York has the highest average hotel rates, $205.99 per night, an increase of 3.7% over last year, according to Travelclick. In Los Angeles, the average hotel rate will go up 4.6% to $112.42 a night.

You won’t escape the higher prices by driving: Gas prices reached the highest levels ever in the week prior to Thanksgiving, according to the Automobile Club of Southern California. The average price of self-serve regular gasoline in the Los Angeles-Long Beach area was $3.82 a gallon last week,  66 cents higher than the same time last year.

And with food prices on the rise, the American Farm Bureau Federation is predicting that the cost of a Thanksgiving dinner in the U.S. will rise 13% this year, the biggest increase in two decades.

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Photo credit: Reuters

TSA says no new study of scanner health effects needed

TSA chief John Pistole is backing off on a promise to have an independent panel look into the health effects of the full-body scanners used to screen passengers at the nation’s airports.

Pistole told a congressional committee early this month that he was concerned that some travelers still fear they will be harmed by going through airport scanners that use the so-called backscatter technology, which relies on radiation to detect objects hidden under the clothes of passengers.

“We will conduct an independent study to address that,” he told the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.

But last week Pistole changed his tune, saying the Transportation Security Administration recently received a draft report from the inspector general of the Department of Homeland Security that confirms the conclusion of previous independent studies -- that the scanners are safe for all passengers.

For now, Pistole said another study is not needed. But, he told CNN last week, he will “work with Congress to see whether that addresses their concerns.” For good reason: Congress approves the TSA’s annual budget.

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Photo: A TSA official demonstrates how the full-body scanners are used at Los Angeles International Airport. Credit: Bob Chamberlin / Los Angeles Times 

Apartments under construction at Wilshire and Barrington

Construction of a six-story apartment building got underway last week at Wilshire Boulevard and Barrington Avenue in West Los Angeles, one of the area’s major intersections.

The property, formerly anchored by a liquor store and shoe store, was one of the most underutilized sites in West Los Angeles, said Ken Kahan, president of California Landmark, the Los Angeles company building the $35-million complex.

The apartment building called the bw replaces the previous plan for the site, a 28-story condominium building approved in 2004. Condo values and sales fell in the economic downturn, however.

“A high-rise condominium tower does not work in today’s market,” Kahan said.

Set to open in August 2013, the bw will have 78 units expected to rent for $2,200 to $4,000 a month. The design by Los Angeles-based PK Architecture calls for a rooftop garden, modernist lobby and a gym.

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Image: The planned bw apartment complex at Wilshire and Barrington. Credit: California Landmark