Los Angeles International Airport

Los Angeles International is the primary airport for the second-largest metropolitan area in the United States and the busiest origin-destination airport in the world — meaning most of its 75.0M annual passengers begin or end their journey at LAX rather than connecting through it. This is structurally different from hub-heavy peers like ATL or DFW, and it shapes everything about LAX's layout and route mix. Nine terminals (1, 2, 3, 4/T4B, 5, 6, 7, 8, and Tom Bradley International Terminal) ring the U-shaped Central Terminal Area, currently in the middle of a $30B+ modernization that will add an automated people-mover (LAX/Metro Transit Center Station opened 2024, full APM opening 2026) and a consolidated rental-car facility to relieve decades of ground-access gridlock. Delta anchors T2/T3 after a major consolidation; American operates from T4/T5; United from T7/T8; and international carriers cluster at TBIT — including the entire Asia-Pacific roster (Singapore, Qantas, ANA, JAL, Korean, Cathay, China Southern, Air China). LAX is the primary U.S. west-coast gateway for Asia-Pacific traffic — some of the longest scheduled routes on earth land here, including Sydney, Doha, and Auckland. Its four parallel runways handle over 700,000 movements annually. LAX's role in the California aviation ecosystem has diminished somewhat as Long Beach, Ontario, Burbank, and San Diego absorb more point-to-point traffic, but as an international gateway it remains irreplaceable on the west coast.