$20bn makeover for LA airport

Love it or hate it, Los Angeles Airport is an unavoidable part of travelling to the US for many Australians.

Tom Bradley international terminal at Los Angeles airport.

Love it or hate it, Los Angeles Airport is an unavoidable part of travelling to the US for many Australians.

In the past year, 60 per cent of Aussies visiting the US arrived at LAX — a total of 570,619 passengers.

Happily, a $19.75 billion modernisation program over the past nine years has delivered significant improvements to the airport, including the expanded use of biometrics and other technology.

And by the time the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics roll around, the city’s airport will be almost unrecognisable.

Coinciding with the 100th birthday of LAX, director of terminal planning and design Ellen Wright said renovations to the nine terminals would be complete, and the city’s Metro rail network would connect to the airport’s new automated people mover (APM) system.

“I’ve been in Los Angeles for over 40 years now and if you’d told me 40 years ago that Los Angeles would have a mass transit system that was usable and dependable I would’ve said ‘you’re out of your mind’ but here we are,” Ms Wright said. “We’re really excited for travellers who will be able to come into LAX, walk into the APM station, take the APM to the Metro and from there be able to go downtown. The APM will also connect to a new remote parking facility and a new consolidated rental car facility.”

At the centre of the renovated LAX will be the striking and unforgettable Theme Building, which Ms Wright described as “an icon for Los Angeles”.

“I think it’s just like when you think about the Eiffel Tower you immediately think of Paris, when you think of the Theme Building, you immediately think of Los Angeles and that’s here at the airport,” she said.

LAX historian Ethel Pattison, who became familiar with the airport in the early 1950s as a United Airlines’ stewardess, said back then it was just “three two-storey buildings”.

“Two of the buildings were for the airlines and the other was for a post office, bank, coffee shop, weather bureau and restaurant,” Ms Pattison said.

“The jet era brought the need for expansion as everybody wanted to fly to their desired destinations rather than take a train or bus as they did before.”

As an LAX tour guide since 1956, Ms Pattison said her most memorable experience was helping then president Richard Nixon board Air Force One.

“I thought he had the prettiest eyes I had ever seen and I wasn’t even an eye person,” she said.

“We also met Neil Armstrong when he returned from walking on the moon in 1969.”