FAA warns of runway-incursion risk at LAX after taxiway changes
iSpyVNY news - September 5 2026
Los Angeles — A major construction project at Los Angeles International Airport was intended to improve safety on the airport's north runway complex. Instead, the Federal Aviation Administration says the redesigned taxiway system has produced a new and persistent runway-incursion risk — one serious enough that the agency is now warning operators and flight crews about the problem.
The issue centers on Runways 24R and 24L, the two closely spaced parallel runways on LAX's north airfield.
In a Sept. 3 Safety Alert for Operators, the FAA said it had identified 15 runway incursions involving aircraft that landed on Runway 24R and warned operators and flight crews of the critical need for enhanced situational awareness and energy management.
The incidents followed the July 2024 commissioning of Taxiways V and W and other changes to the North Complex. The FAA attributed the incursions to a combination of airport geometry and human factors, including high workload during the landing rollout, situational awareness, information processing and confusing taxiway configurations.
The configuration is complicated by the unusually short distance between the runways. The FAA says the centerlines of 24R and 24L are about 700 feet apart, but the holding-position markings are only about 300 feet apart because there is no center taxiway between them.
The Los Angeles Board of Airport Commissioners approved the larger Airfield and Terminal Modernization Project in 2021. In December 2022, the board approved a $174.3 million construction contract for the North Airfield Exit Taxiways project. The FAA later awarded LAX $18.9 million in Airport Improvement Program funding for the project's first phase.
The airport's modernization plans, however, retained the existing spacing between the two north runways.
That decision has become significant.
The FAA began responding before issuing its latest alert. In 2025, the FAA designated the location as Hot Spot 1 and revised the airport diagram to warn crews landing on 24R to control their speed and expect to hold short of 24L. The FAA said the changes reduced the number of incursions but did not eliminate the underlying risk.
The FAA is now asking airlines to incorporate the LAX scenario into pilot briefings, crew resource management procedures and simulator training. The warning raises a larger question about the evolution of LAX's north airfield: whether an effort to eliminate one longstanding runway hazard has exposed another.
The FAA says the risk is not isolated to Los Angeles. It has identified similar configurations at several other major airports.
The new LAX warnings and training underscore the difficulty of making a complex airport safer without creating new challenges of its own.