Los Angeles International Airport

Location
Officially opened in 1937, the airport is about 25 km or 18 miles southwest of downtown Los Angeles. The airport may be reached on the Interstate I-405 using exits 47 and 48 (San Diego Freeway), via Interstate I-105 (Glenn Anderson Freeway) or California State Route #1 (Highway 1).

In the transfer area all area signs for taxis are yellow, those for rental cars are purple and for the shuttle buses within Los Angeles, blue. Those areas where shuttle buses stop which are going further afield, for example to Santa Barbara, are signposted green, for vans and limousines, they are orange and hotel buses, red.

All free shuttle buses are labelled with letters. The A bus shuttles connect the terminals. C bus shuttles go to the parking area C, G bus shuttles take passengers to the Green Line Metro Station. In order to go to downtown LA please take the Green Line to Imperial/Wilmington Station (LACMTA Station) and then change for the Blue Line.

Several local buses stop at LAX City Bus Center for example bus number 3 to Santa Monica, 6 to Westwood, 8 to Torrance, 42 to Wilmington, 111 to Norwalk Station, 117 to Lakewood Station, 232 to Long Beach, 439 to Downtown, 625 to Jefferson or 715 to Downey.

The "FlyAway" Shuttlebus operates a regular service between L.A. International and Ontario airport 80 km or 50 miles further east in San Bernadino County. FlyAway also takes passengers to Irvine Amtrak Station about 80 km or 50 miles further east, to the district of Westwood about 20 km or 14 miles north, and to Union Station (AMTRAK) in downtown LA.

Southern California Gray Line also provides several daily bus services going for example to the Disneyland Resort in Anaheim, an airport bus to Bakersfield, the "Antelope Express" to Acton, Lancaster and Palmdale (Antelope Valley), "SB-Airbus" to Carpinteria, Goleta and Santa Barbara or the "Ventura County Airporter" to Ventura. All current departure times are available locally or on the internet. Alternatively, please take a taxi for the onward journey.

History
The airport grounds on the Pacific Ocean south of the district of Westchester was already an airport as early as 1928. The airport, then called Mines Field after William M. Mines, the estate agent who wound up the purchase , was at first a makeshift uncemented runway. The first wooden buildings for passengers were constructed in the late summer of the following year.

In 1937, the city bought the airport, founded a department and, in 1941, called the airport Los Angeles Airport. The airport was first extended and called Los Angeles International Airport in 1949. Until that time, Grand Central Air Terminal in Glendale was the local commercial airport in the region.

In 1958, due to increasing traffic after the second world war and the start of the jet plane era, several architects made plans to develop the airport grounds for the future. The first project was a reception area which was built in 1961 in the shape of a UFO with 4 decks. The first jet from New York landed in 1959 and the fist jumbo jets (Boeing 747) then followed in 1970 when TWA used them for its route from New York to Los Angeles.

There were further plans to expand the airport when it became known in 1981 that Los Angeles would host the summer Olympics in 1984. The airport commission made 700 million dollars available to completely renew the old terminal. Another terminal was also to be built for domestic as well as one for international scheduled traffic. Building work was started the following July with a ceremony led by the mayor Tom Bradley, also the name of the international Terminal, and James Harold Doolittle, aviation pioneer and brigadier general. The official opening ceremony of the renovated and extended airport took place about a month before the Olympic games, on 11th June 1984.

A further terminal for the Airbus A380 is currently under construction. By 2012 a fully automatic underground People Mover is to connect the Tom Bradley Terminal with the main terminal.