Renovated terminal at L.A. airport to o≠er lap of luxury

LOS ANGELES — A newly renovated terminal at Los Angeles International Airport could make it tough to remember there’s a plane to catch.

When it opens in August, the 150,000square-foot Great Hall at the Tom Bradley International Terminal will highlight the excesses of Los Angeles, with a lineup of duty-free shops featuring luxury boutiques such as Hermes and Gucci.

A Parisian bar will offer champagne and caviar that passengers can carry onto a plane.

And if champagne bubbles don’t provide enough kick, travelers can pay $20,000 for a bottle of cognac.

The terminal is part of a $4.1 billion upgrade at the nation’s third-busiest airport that seeks to push the facility from a place some travelers try to avoid to one they don’t want to leave.

Although it is behind schedule and two years from full completion, the $1.9 bil- lion terminal is being showcased in advance with media tours and open houses for the public.

Three new gates are operating; five more are to open by the end of summer.

When it is fully operational, it will have 18 gates, nine of which can accommodate the double-decker Airbus A380, the world’s largest passenger plane, holding more than 800 people.

Asian travelers are expected to be a large segment of the clientele, and the terminal reflects that, said Michael Law- son, president of the Los Angeles Board of Airport Commissioners.

There’s an 80-foot “Welcome Wall” that greets arriving passengers with visual cascades, ranging from a flowing cloudscape to an L.A. shoreline. Throughout the 50,000-square-foot lobby are 60 retailers and restaurants.

Los Angeles World Airports, which operates and manages the airport, said the project is built in a way that minimizes environmental harm to surrounding areas.