Completion of the $2 billion automated people mover project at Los Angeles International Airport appears to have been pushed back yet again – this time by nearly six months to the spring of next year.

That’s according to a bond rating document from Fitch Rating Service, one of the three major bond rating agencies. 

The people mover is the centerpiece of the $5.5 billion makeover of ground access routes to LAX. It is intended to whisk passengers along a 2.25-mile route from the central terminal area, first to a now-completed intermodal parking facility, then to a station connecting to the Metro K (Crenshaw-LAX) light rail line and finally to a $1 billion consolidated car rental facility now nearing completion.

In its Jan. 19 report on $1.2 billion in bonds that had been issued for the project, Fitch downgraded its rating to BB+ from BBB-, with a negative future outlook.

The rating service said its downgrade was due to recurring construction delays and disputes between the airport agency, Los Angeles World Airports, and the project’s contractor, known as LINXS, which is a consortium of five major infrastructure companies.

Fitch added that in spite of construction of the people mover being 96% complete, “the project has experienced extended construction delays, prolonged dispute resolution, and difficulties in the parties’ working relationship….(T)he project is required to undergo a rigorous testing and commissioning process and is not expected to be completed until April 2025.”

In its downgrade report, Fitch analysts said some of the current delays have centered around information technology access that the contractor team needs to conduct systems testing and reaching agreement on a change order to finish work on one of the pedestrian walkways.

In its last rating report on the project bonds, issued last summer, Fitch wrote – using similar language – that the project completion date had been pushed back to October 2024 from July 1, a delay of about four months.

Back in 2018, when the contract was issued, the targeted completion date was 2023. This latest delay means the project has been pushed back nearly two years in total.

Through the years, construction has been slowed by wet winters, the Covid-19 pandemic and supply chain issues, in addition to the disputes with the contractor consortium. 

So far, all of the disputes have been worked out through negotiations, but at the cost of some lost construction time.

In response to a Business Journal request for comment on both the Fitch downgrade and the apparent additional delay in project completion, Los Angeles World Airports issued the following statement:

“The Department is in active discussions with the Automated People Mover contractor to resolve outstanding claims and has no additional information at this time.”

There is one silver lining to this series of delays: the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority, or Metro, now has additional time to complete the nearly $900 million station connecting the people mover line with its K Line, thereby linking the airport to the region’s rail network for the first time ever. 

That completion date was itself pushed back from last year to late this year.