LAX people mover is 99% done, but uncertainty mounts near deadline

The long-awaited Automated People Mover train at Los Angeles International Airport is expected to transform traffic ahead of the 2028 Olympics. Visitors to the airport have been able to watch the trains in action, but travelers have yet to benefit.

Despite months of test runs and finishing touches near completion, the people mover, dubbed Skylink, faces financial scrutiny and new uncertainty as the project approaches a final deadline amid escalating tension between the airport and the contractor.

Fitch Ratings recently moved the credit rating of the project’s $1.2-billion senior bond to its negative watch list. The California Municipal Finance Authority’s bond issued on behalf of project contractor LAX Integrated Express Solutions, known as LINXS, was downgraded deeper into junk territory, from BB+ to BB, a move that highlights the project’s vulnerability to default risk as it gets closer to the drop-dead date of completion, or longstop.

In its report, Fitch said further delay “leaves the project in a precarious position with a limited margin of safety before it could breach the lenders’ longstop of Oct. 8, 2026, and the project longstop date of Dec. 8, 2026.” In that unlikely scenario, the project with LINXS could be terminated and Los Angeles World Airports, which manages LAX, would have to find a new contractor, further delaying the train’s future.

“There’s a big difference between a project that is only 25% done or 50% done, versus something that is 99.6% done,” said Seth Lehman of Fitch. “All the hard infrastructure of the project is there; all rail cars that serve the project are being tested.”

It would be extremely difficult and expensive for the airport to distance itself from the contractor if the project failed.

“We think that LAX would not likely want to go down the road of going through a formal termination process because it becomes a big challenge for them to kind of then separate themselves from the current parties they’re working with.”

Fitch cited a “rising discord between the project parties over outstanding claims and obligations, even though the project is 99.6% complete and both parties have economic incentives to complete it.” In 2024, the credit agency downgraded the bond rating from BBB- to BB+. The credit agency said the current rating is unlikely to improve without completion or major progress.

Construction for the 2.25-mile elevated train started in 2019. It was originally slated for a 2023 opening, but negotiations over timeline, production and compensation between LAWA and LINXS and discussions during multiple closed door board meetings led to extensive setbacks.

Officials were hopeful that it would open before the 2026 World Cup , which would have been a crucial test run ahead of the 2028 Games. But it missed that goal date, prompting L.A. City Councilmember Monica Rodriguez to introduce a motion, which passed, for LAWA to report back on the ongoing delays.

“With the 2026 FIFA World Cup now underway, the project missed its long-anticipated target of being operational before the event,” the motion states.