Delta promises few construction headaches from its $1.9-billion LAX upgrade
Delta Air Lines launched a massive and complicated move at Los Angeles International Airport last year, an operation that gave the carrier access to seven new gates but required 19 other carriers to relocate.
Now the Atlanta-based airline has begun a $1.9-billion construction project to upgrade its new digs at terminals 2 and 3.
Under the project, Delta will tear down and rebuild the structure between the two terminals and add an above-ground connector between Terminal 3 and the Tom Bradley International Terminal.
Anyone who has flown out of LAX in the past few years is already accustomed to the inconvenience of having to drive or walk around construction barriers and temporary walls to get on a plane. The airport is undergoing a $14-billion modernization project that has created headaches for travelers since it began in 2009.
But Ranjan Goswami, Delta’s vice president for sales in the West, promises that Delta’s project should create minimal turbulence for travelers.
The first phase of the project is the demolition and rebuilding of the structure between terminals 2 and 3, which is now used for passenger check-in on the ground floor and offices for airlines and other businesses on the top floors. That building eventually will connect the two terminals and include a lobby, check-in desks, security lanes and Delta’s Sky Club lounge.
During construction, Goswami said, passengers who need to travel between terminals 2 and 3 must walk along the sidewalk outside of the terminals. Passengers who already have cleared a security checkpoint inside can take a shuttle bus on the tarmac between the terminals, he said.
That likely will be a problem only if Delta passengers flying out of LAX are dropped off at the wrong terminal and need to walk between terminals 2 and 3, Goswami said. Another problem may be if a Delta takeoff is moved to a different gate at the last minute, he said.
“It won’t be an inconvenience,” Goswami promised.
The first phase of the project — including the completion of the building between the two terminals — is scheduled to be completed by January 2021. The entire project, including the connector between Terminal 3 and the international terminal, is expected to be completed by 2023.
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