Los Angeles flights: which airport

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Los Angeles International (LAX) is the gateway most long-haul traffic uses, with Hollywood Burbank, Long Beach and John Wayne taking a large share of the domestic flying. The difference that decides your arrival is not distance from Downtown. It is that LAX has no rail link into the terminals themselves: Metro’s C and K lines have served the LAX/Metro Transit Center at Aviation Blvd./96th St. since 6 June 2025, and from there every passenger finishes the journey on a bus.

The kerb does not behave normally either. Neither a taxi nor an Uber will collect you outside a terminal door at LAX; both are consolidated at the LAX-it lot east of Terminal 1. Plan the transfer as two legs, not one, whichever mode you pick.

Every number below is the published figure from the authority that sets it, checked on the date at the foot of this page. Airfares are not here and never will be — that is what the booking sites are for. See how booking works if you want to know why.

The rail line reaches the airport boundary, not the terminals

Metro opened the LAX/Metro Transit Center on 6 June 2025, describing a station “Located at Aviation Blvd./96th St.” that “signifies the K line is a fully functional connection in Metro’s network”. What it is not is a station inside the airport. The rail leg ends at the transit centre and LAWA picks you up from there.

That last leg is free, and Metro is precise about where it starts: “Connect from LAX/Metro Transit Center (Bus Bays 1 and 2) to all LAX terminals via a free, frequent shuttle.” Going the other way it does not use the departures level. LAWA’s advisory of 4 September 2026 puts the stops at each terminal on the Lower/Arrivals Level — “look for the posts marked ‘LAX Shuttles’ in pink”.

Frequency is the soft spot in the plan. At the June 2025 opening Metro said that “As riders await access to the APM, LAWA will provide shuttles every 10 minutes”, timed to the C and K line and municipal bus schedules, and no updated headway has been published since. Treat 10 minutes as the stated intention rather than a timetable, and budget it on top of the rail time before deciding the train is quicker.

Rail is not the only Metro way in: bus lines 102, 111, 117, 120 and 232 also serve the transit centre. If you are driving to the line rather than to the airport, park-and-ride is $3 a day at Aviation/LAX, Hawthorne/Lennox and Norwalk on the C Line and at Crenshaw/Expo and Fairview Heights on the K Line, with Norwalk also selling monthly parking at $60. The one public service that does reach the terminals with no change at all is the LAX FlyAway bus, nonstop from Union Station and from Van Nuys.

Paying for Metro, and the trap for anyone who lands holding only cash

The fare itself is small. Metro charges $1.75 one way, and “Transfers are free within 2 hours when you tap to ride — roundtrips not included”, so the onward bus or rail leg from the airport line usually costs nothing extra.

The trap is the payment method. Metro states it flatly: “To ride Metro Rail, you must pay with a credit, debit or TAP card”. Cash is not accepted on rail. An arriving passenger carrying nothing but dollar bills cannot board the C or K line at the airport transit centre at all until they have bought a physical TAP card, which costs $2 from a vending machine or a TAP vendor. Tap a contactless bank card or a phone instead and the problem disappears. More on the wider network is on the Los Angeles trains page.

SkyLink is built but not open, and the rideshare fee rises the day it switches on

The people mover has a name now, SkyLink, and as of September 2026 LAWA is still writing about it in the future tense. The published shape of it: a 2.25-mile elevated guideway with six stations, three inside the Central Terminal Area and three outside, and the promise that “SkyLink will operate 24/7 and will be free for ticketed passengers, airport employees, and those picking up and dropping off travelers.”

LAWA says trains “will arrive at stations every 2 minutes during peak hours”, which it defines as 9am to 11pm, with 10 minutes end to end from the Rental Car Center to the West CTA station at top speeds of 47 mph. The three stations outside the terminal area are the ones that matter to an arriving passenger: LAX Economy Parking with the adjacent Ground Transport Center; the LAX/Metro Transit Center together with LAX’s own Transit Center; and the Rental Car Center. When it runs, the shuttle bus described above stops being the only way off the rail line.

Switching it on also reprices the door. On 10 March 2026 the Los Angeles Board of Airport Commissioners approved the first rise in LAX ground transportation access fees in more than a decade: $12 for rideshare companies wanting direct access to the central terminals and $6 at the new Ground Transport Center, against $4 at present. There is no calendar date attached — “Implementation of the new fee structure will coincide with SkyLink’s activation”. The same decision closes what LAWA calls a “regulatory loophole” under which premium vehicles had been dropping off curbside without paying any drop-off fee. These are charges on the operator rather than a line on your receipt, but a $12 terminal fee against $6 one shuttle ride away is a gap the apps will find a way to reflect.

What a taxi out of LAX actually costs, including the floor nobody quotes

City of Los Angeles cabs run on a LADOT rate sheet still internally titled “Revised Taxi Rate Sheet 2023” and still the live document in September 2026. The meter opens at $3.10, covering the first ninth of a mile or 37 seconds, then $0.33 for each additional ninth, which LADOT states as $2.97 per mile. Waiting time and traffic delay run at the same $0.33 per 37 seconds, printed on the sheet as $32.11 per hour — the number to hold in mind when the 405 stops moving.

Two airport extras land before distance does. Every trip originating at LAX carries a $4.00 surcharge, and there is a $16.50 minimum fare per trip per group out of the airport, which the rate sheet specifies as “IN ADDITION TO THE $4.00 SURCHARGE”. The floor for a short hop out of LAX — to a hotel on Century Boulevard, say — is therefore $20.50 no matter how few miles you cover.

Downtown is the one flat fare: $51.15 per trip per group in either direction, which becomes $55.15 leaving the airport once the surcharge goes on, before tip. Check the boundary before relying on it. LADOT defines Downtown as the area bounded by Alameda St., the Santa Monica Fwy., the Harbor Fwy. and Cesar Chavez Ave., plus Union Station and Chinatown. A hotel outside that box — in Koreatown, or south of the Santa Monica Freeway — is a metered trip with no ceiling on it at all. Where you stay changes the transfer more than the airline does; see Los Angeles hotels.

Nobody is collected at the kerb, and that includes whoever is meeting you

LAX consolidated its taxis and ride apps away from the terminals, and LAWA still spells out the walk: “Travelers using a taxi or ride-app vehicle, such as Uber and Lyft can walk to the LAX-it lot east of Terminal 1 or take a free LAX-it shuttle from the Lower/Arrivals Level.” From the far end of the Central Terminal Area with bags that is a shuttle ride, not a stroll, and it happens before your driver has been summoned.

Private pickups are pushed off the kerb too. There are two free cell phone waiting lots, at 6217 W. 96th Street and 5800 W. Century Boulevard, and LAWA’s own guide to timing the run is about 15 minutes after landing with no checked bags, 30 minutes with them and 45 minutes for an international arrival. The airport is formally shut to everyone else: “LAX is closed to the general public 24 hours a day, 7 days a week”, with entry limited to passengers, the people meeting or assisting them, and staff whose work requires it.

Leaving, LAWA asks for two hours before a domestic flight and three hours before an international one. That advice is being given while the Tom Bradley International Terminal, Terminal 4 and the future Terminal 5 are all under construction and roadway closures in and around the Central Terminal Area run into the autumn of 2026, so the drop-off you remember may not be where it was.

Hollywood Burbank has the thing LAX does not: a platform you can walk from

When the fares are close, the airport worth pricing against LAX is Hollywood Burbank, because it is the one in the region where the train genuinely reaches the terminal. Metro lists Burbank Airport-South on the Metrolink Ventura County Line as a quarter-mile walk to the terminals, with a free airport shuttle for anyone not walking it, and Burbank Airport-North on the Antelope Valley Line as one mile north of the terminals, also with a free shuttle.

Set that against LAX, where the equivalent arrival is a rail leg, a shuttle wait and a second bus ride, and Burbank is the materially simpler landing for anyone headed to the Valley, to Hollywood or to Union Station. Long Beach and John Wayne are the other scheduled airports in the basin, with Ontario further east; how far each sits from where you are actually sleeping matters more than the three-letter code on the ticket. Onward options are on the sibling pages: trains, buses, car hire and tours.

Common questions

Is there a train to LAX?

Not into the terminals. Metro’s C and K lines have served the LAX/Metro Transit Center at Aviation Blvd./96th St. since 6 June 2025, and from there a free LAWA shuttle runs from Bus Bays 1 and 2 to every terminal. Coming back, that shuttle picks up on the Lower/Arrivals Level at posts marked ‘LAX Shuttles’ in pink. The SkyLink people mover will replace the bus leg, but as of September 2026 LAWA still describes it in the future tense.

How much is a taxi from LAX to Downtown Los Angeles?

There is a flat fare of $51.15 per trip per group in either direction, and out of the airport the $4.00 LAX surcharge goes on top, making $55.15 before tip. It only applies to LADOT’s defined Downtown — the area bounded by Alameda St., the Santa Monica Fwy., the Harbor Fwy. and Cesar Chavez Ave., plus Union Station and Chinatown. Anywhere else you are metered at $3.10 to start and $2.97 a mile.

Where do Uber and Lyft pick up at LAX?

At the LAX-it lot east of Terminal 1, not at the terminal kerb — and taxis use the same lot. You either walk there or take a free LAX-it shuttle from the Lower/Arrivals Level, so allow for that leg before you request the car rather than after.

What is SkyLink and has it opened yet?

SkyLink is the LAX people mover: a 2.25-mile elevated guideway with six stations, three inside the Central Terminal Area and three outside, which LAWA says will run 24/7, free for ticketed passengers, employees and anyone dropping off or picking up, with trains every 2 minutes in the 9am to 11pm peak and 10 minutes end to end. As of September 2026 LAWA still writes about it in the future tense. Rideshare access fees rise to $12 at the central terminals and $6 at the Ground Transport Center, from $4, when it is activated.

Can I pay cash on the train from LAX?

No. Metro says that to ride Metro Rail you must pay with a credit, debit or TAP card, so dollar bills will not get you through the gates at the airport transit centre. A physical TAP card is $2, the base fare is $1.75 one way, and transfers are free within two hours when you tap, round trips excluded.

Which Los Angeles airport is easiest to reach by rail?

Hollywood Burbank. Burbank Airport-South on the Metrolink Ventura County Line is a quarter-mile walk from the terminals and Burbank Airport-North on the Antelope Valley Line is a mile away, each with a free airport shuttle. LAX, by contrast, still needs a shuttle bus between the rail station and the terminals.

Sources

Fares, journey times and operating rules on this page were checked against these sources on 11 September 2026. Authorities change fares and timetables without notice — confirm anything time-critical on the operator’s own site.

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