FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 9, 2020

Contact: 
LAX Public Relations
(424) 646-5260

LAX PILOT PROGRAM ADDING TWO ADDITIONAL TAXI PICKUP AREAS TO AUGMENT LAX-IT SET TO BEGIN TUESDAY AT 8 AM

(Los Angeles, CA) Starting tomorrow, Tuesday, March 10, at 8 a.m., LAX will begin a 90-day pilot program that provides additional taxi cab pickup locations for guests. The two new pilot locations will augment taxi pickups at LAX-it, which will remain the primary pickup location for taxis and ride app vehicles.

Additional signage will be placed overnight to help guests arriving at Tom Bradley International Terminal and Terminals 3, 7 and 8 find the new taxi pickup locations. Signage that helps guests find their way to the LAX-it shuttle or to reach LAX-it by foot will remain unchanged. LAX staff also will continue to answer guests’ questions. Information on the new taxi pickup locations can also be found at FlyLAX.com/lax-traffic-and-ground-transportation.
 

The two new locations for taxi pickups are:

• Parking Structure 3: This location will serve guests of Tom Bradley International Terminal and Terminal 3. The pickup location will be the lane closest to Tom Bradley International Terminal on the ground floor of Parking Structure 3. Passenger queuing will occur on the curb nearest the taxi lanes.  
• Terminal 7/8: A taxi stand will be brought back to the previous location on the Lower/Arrivals level of the Central Terminal Area (CTA), past the last entrance to T7/8. This location will serve guests arriving at Terminals 7 and 8, and queueing will be on the curb by the taxi stand. This location is past where buses and shuttles exit the inner lanes and provides a separate entrance for vehicles.

Guests arriving at terminals 1, 2, 4, 5, and 6, will continue to walk or take a fast and free shuttle to LAX-it to find their taxi pickups. Furthermore, because space for both taxis and pedestrians at the two new pickup locations is limited, guests arriving at Tom Bradley and Terminals 3, 7, and 8 during high-volume times are still encouraged to walk or take the shuttle to LAX-it for the quickest departure from LAX.

LAX-it, the taxi and ride app pickup area that debuted in late October 2019. Shuttle rides to LAX-it are consistently under 15 minutes from all terminals, with buses arriving every 5 minutes. Once arriving at LAX-it, guests typically wait less than 10 minutes – and frequently not at all – for their taxi or ride app pickup.

LAX-it was implemented as a traffic mitigation strategy during a period of extremely heavy construction on LAX’s Automated People Mover train and stations, and redevelopment of every single terminal. That construction has led to the closure of 30 percent of the inner curb lanes, internal roads within LAX’s Central Terminal Area (CTA), and cranes, heavy equipment, and construction crews throughout the CTA. LAWA’s projections indicated that, without significant mitigations, traffic at LAX and backing up into surrounding communities would be worse on the average summer day than on the Sunday after Thanksgiving. As a result of LAX-it, the number of vehicles in the CTA has decreased by an average of 12-13% each day.

Critical to the success of LAX-it has been the high occupancy bus and shuttle system now operating on the inner curb lanes of the CTA’s lower level. Those lanes have been closed to all single-use vehicles, allowing high-occupancy vehicles to move more freely. In addition to the LAX-it shuttles, FlyAway buses, the G shuttle to the Metro Green Line, the shuttle to the City Bus Center, Buses to Economy Parking Lot E, Employee Shuttles, and the LAX Inter-Terminal Connector currently use the inner lanes. LAWA is also planning to introduce additional high-occupancy modes into those lanes going forward. The only non-high-occupancy mode permitted to pick up from those inner lanes is LA Access Taxis. The Terminal 7/8 taxi pickup location is past where buses exit the inner lanes of the CTA, and the Parking Structure 3 pickup location also does not require the use of these lanes, which is why the two locations were chosen in collaboration with the taxi industry. 

About Los Angeles International Airport (LAX)

LAX, the fourth-busiest airport in the world and second busiest in the United States, was named a top-10 U.S. airport by SKYTRAX. LAX served nearly 88.1 million passengers in 2019 and offers an average of nearly 700 daily nonstop flights to 113 destinations in 42 states in the U.S., and 1,200 weekly nonstop flights to 91 markets in 46 countries on 72 commercial airlines. LAX handled 691,257 operations (landings and takeoffs) in 2019.

LAX generated 620,600 jobs in Southern California, with labor income of $37.3 billion and economic output (business revenues) of more than $126.6 billion, according to an economic study based on 2014 operations. This activity added $6.2 billion to local and state revenues and $8.7 billion in federal tax revenues. The study also reported that LAX’s ongoing capital improvement program creates an additional 121,640 annual jobs with labor income of $7.6 billion and economic output of $20.3 billion; $966 million in state and local taxes; and $1.6 billion in federal tax revenues.

LAX was honored as having the “Best Overall Customer Service Program” by Airports Council International-North America; named the “Best Airport for Breastfeeding Moms” by Mamava; selected for the Top 10 “Best of the U.S.’s Big Airports” (Wall Street Journal) and “Most Pet-Friendly Airports in the U.S. (Mental Floss); named the second-most improved airport in the U.S. by JD Power; received an “Innovation Award” from the L.A. Better Business Challenge for its Central Utility Plant; and named a “Business Leader in Air Quality” by the South Coast Air Quality Management District.

LAX is also the second-most popular airport in the world to appear on Instagram, according to wego.com. LAX is part of a system of two Southern California airports – along with Van Nuys general aviation – that are owned and operated by Los Angeles World Airports, a proprietary department of the City of Los Angeles that receives no funding from the City’s general fund.

As a covered entity under Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act, the City of Los Angeles does not discriminate on the basis of disability and, upon request, will provide reasonable accommodation to ensure equal access to its programs, services, and activities. Alternative formats in large print, braille, audio, and other forms (if possible) will be provided upon request.

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