LAWA on the web, revisited

If you follow all things Inland Empire, you may have seen the post that appeared in my Empoprise-IE blog on Monday. Among other things, the post took an online publication to task for saying that Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) has five terminals. I then noted, with support from the LAX website, that LAX has eight terminals - Tom Bradley International Terminal, and numbered terminals 1-7.

I'm sure a few of you know where this is going.

After I wrote the post, but before I published it, I had to take someone to LAX. According to my FlightStats app, the flight was scheduled to leave from Terminal 8.

Thinking nothing of this, I went to Waze to plot a course for Terminal 8. (Aside: if you are meeting someone at the ARRIVAL level of LAX, be very careful when selecting your Waze destination.) But when I searched the Waze destinations for LAX, I couldn't find Terminal 8 - just Terminal 7. So I drove to Terminal 7 and dropped the person off there.

Is there a Terminal 8, or is there not? Another portion of the LAX website says that there is a Terminal 8.

And apparently the confusion has persisted for years. Here's a quote from a 1998 Los Angeles Times article:

Those figures include travelers passing through Terminal 7 and also the "Shuttle by United Terminal," which many travelers think of as Terminal 8, but which LAX considers a satellite of Terminal 7.

Of course, all of LAWA's plans for 1998 were adversely affected by 9/11 - which, among other things, explains why LAWA-controlled Ontario International Airport still does not have a Terminal 3.