LAX is about to renovate terminal 5 at a cost of $1.7 billion. The plan is to substantially complete work in time for the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. This will upgrade the terminal experience, but will not add any gates.
American, JetBlue, and Spirit currently utilize terminal 5. Airlines are expected to move out of the terminal in October 2025, and current schedle has partial operations re-opening there in May 2027.
- Replace mechanical, electrical, and plumbing systems.
- Upgrade ticketing, security, baggage claim, and concessions.
- Improve holdrooms to better accommodate passengers.
- Enhance employee facilities.
- Improve the current airside connectivity with Terminals 4 and 6. (Despite the marketing around “new connections,” T5 already has airside links to Terminals 4 and 6 via underground walkways and the Tom Bradley International Terminal connector.)
American Airlines CEO Robert Isom told employees in the fall, in a closed-door meeting,
If anybody’s been out there over the years, LAX has not been one of the airports and facilities we’ve been the most proud of. It’s a difficult operation. Difficult for passengers. Difficult to get aircraft in and out of. By 2028 we’re going to have new facilities throughout. We just opened up in T4 the South end of T4, which will give you an idea what things are going to look like.
American Airlines Terminal 4, LAX
The airport authority describes the 2028 time as unprecedented and ‘record time’, but it is not. And spending $1.7 billion without building a single gate is certainly something. Denver’s concourse expansion added 39 new gates for $2.3 billion (including relocating airlines, a commuter facility, the American Airlines Admirals Club, and more). The new 35-gate terminal at New Orleans Louis Armstrong International Airport cost $1.3 billion. Building in California is more expensive!
The terminal was originally opened in 1962, housing Western Airlines. It was remodeled on a faster timeline around Delta’s acquisition of Western (1986 – early 1988). Delta exited the terminal in 2017, and the old Sky Club (barely renovated) is now an American Airlines Admirals Club.
Delta at LAX
American Airlines wants to make sure it keeps its gates at LAX, but has scaled back its ambitions there and is no longer the largest carrier. Long haul flying is limited to joint venture partner hubs. They never even re-opened their Flagship First Dining room, or even made it available as overflow space inside their business class lounge.
A person can complain about the money being spent. But, if a person *regularly* travels through a particular terminal, it’s a drag if it’s a dungeon. Anyone remember Delta’s old T2 lounges? Now, look at the result of Delta’s T2/T3 refurbishment. I’ll take the upgraded facility and don’t mind the fees that are embedded in ticket prices.
I don’t get this criticism of airport redevelopments where gates are not added. I often hear the same criticism of the LGA redevelopments – that they didn’t add any gates. Well the airport is still a vastly improved customer experience, and that is what matters to a lot of people. Same with this – in my experience, AA Terminal 5 is a dump. Delta’s facilities at LAX were lackluster, now they are great. Improving airports is a good thing.
JetBlue should add a lounge here too
T5 is a beautiful terminal, warm travertine tile all over, high ceilings. Just putting in too many flights for the gates allotted.
T5 is one of the better gates. I hardly see how that money couldn’t be better spent using other funds on helping rebuild from the fires.
This will ensure that LAX is a no-growth zone for the next 5 years and it will get much more difficult for passengers on everyone not in DL, WN or UA’s terminals or what AA can fit in T4 as they will undoubtedly be pushed deeper into TBIT and the satellite concourse.
@Anthony – the problem with LGA isn’t gates it’s runways and airspace congestion. Who cares that the ceilings leaked before?
I flew out of T4 yesterday on the AA transcon. I can confidently say that what once was brilliant is now mega-loser/the future has failed us vibes. T4 was (and T5 is) A+ TSA pre-check lines. You wait at most 2-3 minutes and then you are in the screening and out in maybe another 2 minutes. So fast, so efficient. I can get to the airport 50 minutes before departure and have extra time. Now it’s ANALOGIC as far as the eye can see with snail-like processing. Such a disappointment. Give me back the pig.
T5 is really low-brow and really awful but the legacy Delta Admirals Club is “nice.” The bathrooms lack maximum privacy. The whole operation screams used-up but that’s kind of the LA vibe so it works for me.
Good luck getting anything done in Los Angeles on time, let alone “record” time. (The record could be for longest time to repaint a large room.). This will be ripe with fraud and abuse. The city is wildly incompetent and stocked with cronies who are more focused on their socialist agenda. Also, with “the fires” the bureaucrats are all “stretched.”
In short, prepare for things to get worse.
@ Joseph
Let’s see…which Olympic games actually made a profit? Oh that’s right, the Los Angeles games of 1984. Traffic was very low and they came off without a hitch.
But don’t let me distract you from Fox. Enjoy the convicted felon, rapist presidency you helped create. It’s a shame Trump’s buddy Jeffrey Epstein won’t be there to celebrate with him
I think at best American will break even on their operations at LAX. American has high labor costs. Some people will want to take them or another major USA airline across the Pacific Ocean and are willing to pay a somewhat higher price. I have been choosing Asian airlines myself since the merger of NWA with Delta such as EVA and Asiana. Good food and good cabin service. Selectable seats in better seating arrangements. Checked luggage is included. The price has gone up quite a bit since Covid-19 but it is still ok.
Good case for DOGE. Contractors are union, which adds 20% extra cost. Use non-union labor and save $340m.
My understanding is that T5 will be demolished and rebuilt from the ground up. I have no idea what gates AA will use to backfill the loss of T5 (not sure how many they use today). They might be able to use MSC South when it opens but that’s a hike from T4 to there.
This is a city that let an entire section burn down because they couldn’t even keep the fire hydrants working.
@Tom K
Its must really bother you that a felon beat you magic black woman who was supposed to win in a landslide?
Remember she lost because BIDEN and the democrats failed in the most basic way to keep this country running. Not to mention they enable the ped0phile alphabet movement.