LAX's $3.34 Billion People Mover Now Targets October 2026, Missing World Cup Window

LAX's automated people mover was 97% finished in May 2024. As of today, August 8, 2026, it still isn't carrying a single passenger.

The latest target for opening SkyLink, officially the LAX Automated People Mover, is October 2026, according to the New York Post. That date has already missed the 2026 FIFA World Cup window. Airport officials are now pointing to Super Bowl LXI in 2027 and the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics as the dates the system needs to be running by.

Whether October actually holds is an open question. Even the Post's reporting notes the new date isn't considered a lock, citing warnings from industry experts and local transit advocates that the timeline could slip again.

The Money

Construction started in 2019 with a projected budget of $1.9 billion. The price tag has since ballooned to $3.34 billion, according to the Post, which includes $1.34 billion in additional city payouts to the construction consortium, LINXS.

That's not a rounding error. That's the cost nearly doubling on a public infrastructure project tied to one of the busiest airports in the country.

In July 2026, LINXS sued the city over unresolved contract and delay disputes, this after the city had already paid the consortium an additional $880 million to resolve an earlier standoff, per the Post. That $880 million payout is what got construction moving again after work had stalled amid engineering disputes.

How It Got Here

YouTuber Nick Andert dug into the project's history and didn't hold back. He told The Hollywood Reporter that "the sheer cynicism on display by LINXS is breathtaking," adding he'd never seen this level of "shameless behavior from a contractor."

Andert's investigation zeroed in on the contract structure itself, arguing it let the builder halt work during engineering disagreements while simultaneously using penalty clauses against the city as leverage. If that reading is accurate, the deal effectively let the contractor stall the project and get paid more for the privilege.

LINXS's lawsuit is a legal filing making its own case, and the Post's reporting doesn't detail LINXS's side of the dispute or a formal response to the suit. A construction consortium halting work during a genuine engineering dispute isn't automatically bad faith. Disputes over design changes, site conditions, and scope on a project this size are common in large infrastructure builds. Without LINXS's court filings or a public statement from the consortium, it's not possible to independently verify whether the delays were manufactured leverage or legitimate technical holdups. That's a real gap in the public record right now.

What Taxpayers and Flyers Are Actually Getting

Assuming it opens, the system is a fully electric train running 24/7 connecting six stations across LAX. Its main job is killing the airport's infamous terminal loop traffic, the "horseshoe," by removing up to 3,200 shuttle trips a day from the central terminal area, according to the Post.

It will also link LAX directly to L.A. Metro rail for the first time and consolidate every rental car company into one shared off-site facility. Anyone who has fought traffic circling LAX's terminals or waited on a rental car shuttle knows what problem this is supposed to solve.

Physically, the project does appear close. Train cars are running trial laps on the tracks and crews are finishing stations, lighting, screens, and platform testing, per the Post.

What's Unresolved

The core question is simple and unanswered: will October 2026 actually be the date, or is this the latest in a string of missed deadlines stretching back to a project that was already "97% complete" more than two years ago? A litigation clock is now running alongside the construction clock, and Los Angeles World Airports has not said publicly how the LINXS lawsuit might affect the October target. Angelenos, air travelers, and anyone tracking how the city spends public infrastructure money now have a concrete date to hold officials to, and a paper trail of missed ones to measure it against.