LAX's People Mover Slips to Late 2026
Testing started in April. The opening date has moved twice since, and the shuttle buses stay for now.
The automated train that is supposed to end the crawl through the LAX horseshoe has moved again. Testing on the people mover, branded SkyLink, began on April 21, 2026, with LAWA pointing at an October opening. By late July, aviation reporting had it at November. The original date was March 2023.
The money is the other half of the story. The line was contracted at $1.9 billion. Change orders and dispute payments have added roughly $880 million on top, and the wider Landside Access Modernization Program it belongs to has now spent about $3.1 billion. A Los Angeles County civil grand jury blamed the breakdown between LAWA and its contractor, an inadequate dispute process, and the pressure to have the thing running before 2028.
For anyone driving to the airport, the delay has one concrete consequence. The elevated line runs 2.25 miles across seven stations, and its West ITF stop sits inside the 4,300 space Economy garage. That is the moment Economy stops being a shuttle wait and becomes a two minute ride. The plan also moves the LAXit rideshare pickup out to the same facility.
None of that is live yet, so the parking math is unchanged. Budget still caps at $20 a day on a shuttle every 20 to 25 minutes, Economy at $35, and the terminal garages at $60 for a five minute walk to the door.
Our full guide to parking at LAX has the rates, the addresses and where the EV chargers actually are.
Source: Cranky Flier