LAX Could Become ‘Smartest Airport’ with $14 Billion Makeover
Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) is in the midst of a $14 billion transformation. Once completed, it’s expected to turn the Los Angeles airport into one of the smartest in the world.
The project’s first main milestone came back in 2013 with the opening of the revamped Tom Bradley International Terminal. The new Midfield Satellite concourse, an extension of the Tom Bradley International Terminal, is slated to open in 2020. It will be eqipped with automated biometric boarding gates and flight information display scanners allowing passengers to receive personalized maps on their boarding passes.
Other enhancements to the guest experience will allow LAX visitors to book a car, and pre-order food and beverages, or other retail experiences before arriving at the airport. Visitors will also be able to utilize self-selecting services like the option to check their own bags and board the plane using their face as a boarding pass.
“We know millennial travelers are digitally savvy and the airport is utilizing smart technology to ensure the guest experience is frictionless,” Kathryn Smits, vice president for the Los Angeles Tourism & Convention Board told Travel Pulse.
There’s also a separate project that’s in the early stages. It could add a brand new terminal to the airport, 20 new gates, customs facilities for international arrivals, new baggage claim areas, and an additional stop on the forthcoming people mover system. There’s no timeline yet, but the new terminal would be ready for the 2028 Olympics.
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it has to be the worse airport I have ever seen with the scale of people it serves. should have been placed outside of LA. THAT would have been a start. It is like trying to fix up an old chevy camero and spend more that a new corvette doing it. still a camero. how do you get from terminal 4 to 5? yes you walk and normally half of the walkways will work to help. but I understand if they spend 95% of the billions in technology but that does not disguise the pig underneath.
Thanks and I can not wait to see the olympics. poor people
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[…] It’s exciting to see all the changes in airports over the years to make travel better and easier. Danny the Deal Guru writes on Miles to Memories that LAX, home of the historic Theme Building (did you know that Disney Imagineers designed the restaurant that used to be in there?) is on course to become the smartest airport in the world. […]
The people mover and centralized ride share/rental drop off facility should help a lot.
High-tech toys notwithstanding, large airports with terminals not connected by some sort of airside people mover/train system are stupid airports.
All these enhancements are nice and all, but as long as LAX maintains its horseshoe layout, it will continue to be an absolute hell to get in and out of.
Can’t say I’ve ever seen “LAX” and “smartest” in the same sentence, prior to today. 😉
Don’t count on it. With the politician in charge of the city/county, they’ll mess it up just like everything else.