Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) is the international airport owned and operated by Los Angeles World Airports (LAWA), a department of the City of 📝Los Angeles, which describes it as the international gateway to the Southern California region.
According to LAWA, the department owns and operates both LAX and Van Nuys general aviation airport. It is self-supporting, operates its airports with no monies from the city's general fund, and is governed by a seven-member Board of Airport Commissioners appointed by the Mayor and approved by the City Council. Its revenues come mostly from aircraft landing fees, lease fees from more than 350 tenants, concession fees and parking fees.
LAWA traces the airport to the Bennett Rancho, where pioneer aviators of the 1920s used a makeshift landing strip. In July 1927 real estate agent William W. Mines offered 640 acres of the former rancho to the city, giving the site the name Mines Field. The City Council chose it as the city's airport on July 25, 1928, and Los Angeles Municipal Airport began operation on October 1, 1928. Commercial airline service began on December 5, 1946, and Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson dedicated the Jet Age satellite terminals on June 25, 1961.
LAWA's fact page calls LAX the eighth-busiest airport in the world, serving over 75 million guests in 2023. The airport has four east/west parallel runways, the longest 12,091 feet, and is undergoing a multi-billion-dollar capital improvement program that includes an Automated People Mover and a Consolidated Rental Car facility.