Background

In 1995, Los Angeles World Airports (LAWA) began the LAX Master Plan Program with the goal of producing plans, policies, and mitigation programs that would strike an appropriate balance between community, passenger, environmental, and economic forces. 

LAWA originally published a Draft LAX Master Plan that presented three build alternatives (Alternatives A, B and C) and a no action/no project alternative. A Draft Environmental Impact Report (EIR)/Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) analyzed the potential environmental impacts of each of these alternatives and was published shortly thereafter. 

The terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 greatly changed America’s aviation landscape. With a renewed focus on safety, coupled with the public’s comments on the previous Master Plan Alternatives and the Draft EIR/EIS, LAWA was directed to develop a fifth Alternative. Alternative D, presented in an Addendum to the Draft LAX Master Plan and evaluated in a Supplement to the Draft EIR/EIS, became the Final LAX Master Plan and approved by the City Council in 2004. 

The LAX Master Plan was designed to serve approximately 78.9 million annual passengers (MAP) and 3.1 million tons (MAT) of cargo, is intended to guide development of the airport through its planning horizon of 2015. It addresses the pressing need for modernization and improved levels of service, as well as the very real demand for increased security. It is designed to protect critical airport infrastructure and provide for passenger safety and convenience, in balance with community demands. 

 

Elements of the Program

• Airfield modification to include new taxiways on the North and South Airfields and additional runway length on the north airfield. The airfield reconfigurations improve the efficiency of the airport by reducing large aircraft movement restrictions and by physically accommodating the new Large Aircraft (NLA) – A380s – and the next generation of quieter, more environmentally friendly jets.
• Central Terminal Area (CTA) to include new passenger and baggage processing facilities, thereby impr9oving the level of passenger service
• New Aircraft Parking Gates as well as demolition of some existing gates, which will result in fewer net gate positions. All aircraft gates will be contact gates, eliminating the need to bus passengers to remote aircraft parking positions
• Ground Transportation Center (GTC) will consolidate parking and curb front areas, and provide a primary airport access center for arriving and departing passengers.
• Consolidated Rental Car Facility (RAC) places all Rental Car Facilities in one location, to simplify passenger access to these services.
• Intermodal Transportation Center (ITC) will provide a more efficient connection from existing Green Line station at Aviation Boulevard to the CTA. It will also provide airport access for other regional public transit passengers (i.e. buses), as well as public parking.
• Automated People Mover (APM) system, a rail-based transportation system, will connect the GTC, RAC and ITC to the redeveloped CTA
• West Satellite Concourse also knows as the Tom Bradley International Terminal (Terminal B) Reconfiguration Project/Bradley West, a component of the terminal facilities, will be developed to the west of the CTA

The LAX Master Plan was divided into 2 project categories. Projects deemed controversial required additional study through an LAX Specific Plan Amendment Study.