Los Angeles International Airport - Terminals

Terminals

LAX handled 28,861,477 enplanements, the total number of passengers boarding an aircraft, in 2008. This makes LAX the third busiest airport in the U.S. in terms of enplanements. It was the world's sixth-busiest airport by passenger traffic and eleventh-busiest by cargo traffic, serving over 60 million passengers and more than two million tons of freight in 2006. It is the busiest airport in the state of California, and the third-busiest airport by passenger traffic in the United States based on final 2006 statistics. In terms of international passengers, LAX is the second busiest in the U.S. (behind only JFK in New York City) and 26th worldwide. The airport also claims to be "the world's busiest origin and destination (O & D) airport"in 2011 — i.e., the busiest airport as measured by the number of passengers who are not changing planes. The number of aircraft operations (landings and takeoffs) has steadily increased to 603,912 in 2011, up from 575,875 in 2010.

LAX connects 87 domestic and 69 international destinations in North America, Latin America, Europe, the Middle East, Asia and Oceania. Its most prominent airlines are United Airlines (18.24% of passenger traffic, combined with United Express traffic), American Airlines (14.73%) and Southwest Airlines (12.62%). Other airlines with a presence on a lesser scale include Delta Air Lines (11.12%) and Alaska Airlines (4.74%).

LAX has nine passenger terminals arranged in a "U," also called a "horseshoe." The terminals are served by a shuttle bus.

United Airlines/United Express operates the most departures from the airport per day (210), followed by American Airlines/ American Eagle (126), and Southwest Airlines (123).

United Airlines operates to the most destinations followed by American Airlines and Alaska Airlines/Horizon. The largest international carriers at LAX include Qantas, Air New Zealand, Air Canada, Air France, Lufthansa, British Airways, and Korean Air.

In addition to these terminals, there are 2,000,000 square feet (190,000 m2) of cargo facilities at LAX, and a heliport operated by Bravo Aviation. Qantas has a maintenance facility at LAX even though it's not a hub.