Getting from Los Angeles International Airport to the city

The train that is finished and shut

• Skylink, the LAX Automated People Mover, is 2.25 miles of elevated railway, cost $3.3 billion, and is 99.6% complete. Test trains have been running without passengers since April 2026. You can watch them from the terminal. You cannot board one.
• It was originally due to open in 2023. It then missed its target of opening before the 2026 World Cup, and as of 18 August 2026 no passenger service date has been announced.
• A 30-day period of uninterrupted operation is still required before passengers are carried, which by itself pushes any opening to late 2026 at the earliest.
• The contract is under strain. Fitch downgraded the project's $1.2 billion senior bond deeper into junk in July 2026, citing the lenders' longstop of 8 October 2026 and a project longstop of 8 December 2026, and the contractor has sued the city.
• Read this as: do not plan around the train. Anything you have read describing a rail link straight into the terminals is describing a building, not a service.

Getting to Metro today

• Ride the C Line or K Line to LAX/Metro Transit Center, which opened in June 2025 and is the rail station for the airport.
• From there a free shuttle runs to every terminal, from Bus Bays 1 and 2, roughly every 10 minutes, and it is wheelchair accessible.
• Metro's flat fare is $1.75, and transfers within two hours are free as long as you tap to ride.
• Pay with a TAP card, a contactless bank card, Apple Wallet, or cash on buses only.
• Metro bus routes 102, 111, 117, 120 and 232 also reach the transit centre, as do Big Blue Bus, Culver CityBus, Beach Cities Transit, GTrans and Torrance Transit.
• Downtown Los Angeles is about 45 to 60 minutes from the transit centre, before you add the shuttle.

The other shuttle: LAX-it

• Ordinary rideshare does not serve the terminal kerb. UberX, XL, Comfort and Select all collect from LAX-it, a dedicated lot east of Terminal 1. Lyft and taxis use it too.
• Reach it on foot or by the free LAX-it shuttle, picked up on the arrivals level at the green LAX-it signs, roughly every 5 minutes, with a ride of 15 minutes or less.
• Only UberBlack, Black SUV and Lux are allowed at the terminal, which is the whole reason the premium tiers exist here.
• At LAX-it, UberX waits at curbs 2, 3 or 4, and Comfort, XL and Select at the back of curb 2.

The FlyAway bus, without a price

• FlyAway is a non-stop coach from Union Station and from Van Nuys straight to the terminals, and it is the one option that involves no shuttle at either end.
• We are not quoting a fare for it. Los Angeles World Airports blocks automated access to its own site, and the fares repeated elsewhere disagree with each other by several dollars. Buy from the operator and check the price there.
• Metrolink sells a combined ticket that adds the FlyAway leg to a Metrolink fare if you are coming from further out.