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LAX to break ground Tuesday on remodel of Southwest Airlines terminal

Travelers line up outside the Southwest Airlines terminal at LAX during the busy summer travel season. A $500-million remodel of the terminal is set to begin.
Travelers line up outside the Southwest Airlines terminal at LAX during the busy summer travel season. A $500-million remodel of the terminal is set to begin.
(Anne Cusack / Los Angeles Times)
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Work is scheduled to begin next week on a $500-million remodel of the busy Southwest Airlines terminal at Los Angeles International Airport.

City leaders, airport officials and airline representatives are set to break ground Tuesday at Terminal 1, which also houses Southwest’s subsidiary, AirTran Airways.

Terminal 1 was built in 1984 and has 15 gates. In 2013, the facility handled more than 9.65 million passengers, the largest volume of any terminal that year.

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Southwest, which serves 25 cities from LAX, is the airport’s eighth busiest airline with 117 daily departures.

The remodel will include reconfiguring the street access to the terminal, which has experienced some of the worst traffic congestion at LAX, especially during peak travel times.

The groundbreaking ceremonies will include Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, City Councilman Mike Bonin, airport director Gina Marie Lindsay and Sean Burton, president of the airport commission. Officials are also expected to predict how long the work will take. The terminal will remain open during construction.

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