Inside LAX During the Most Ambitious Airport Move, Ever

Tonight is the culmination of a year

of planning and preparation at LAX.

An army of movers, electricians, branders,

and customer service staff are all eager

to finally get working in the largest airport reshuffle

in the US ever, which will give Delta more gates

in return for renovating older terminals

as part of a total overhaul of the airport.

It's going on 11 PM.

You would think the airport would start quieting down

about now, but tonight, that is not the case,

because the movers are coming in.

So as the passengers go through here, terminal two,

make their way through check in,

through security, to the gates,

the movers are right behind them every step of the way.

It's T minus six hours until the first flight

is due to land.

In total, 21 airlines are moving as Delta switches

to terminals two and three from five and six,

and other carriers, including Virgin America,

Frontier, Hawaiian Air, Qatar Airways

and Air Canada all shift the other way.

That's 40% of the capacity of the airport,

so the pressure is on to get this done right.

What makes this move unique

is that it's not into a shiny new terminal.

It is a swap, so things like these signs

out on the curbside aren't pre-filled ready to go.

They're all having to be done

between last flight and first flight,

because otherwise there is going to be

some serious confusion.

Activity gets underway behind the scenes

in the belly of the airport,

where even things like baggage cans are branded

so they all need to be moved,

and then of course, there's the planes.

This is the action end of the airport.

We're air side and this 737 came in tonight

to a gate at terminal five.

Tomorrow morning, it has to leave

from its new home at terminal three,

so any minute now it'll be hooked up to this tug

and taken all the way around the edge

of the airport so it's ready to go.

Construction crews aren't hanging around.

That signature purple lighting of a Virgin America lounge

isn't long for this world.

The builders have just four days

to make that a new Delta Club.

Inside, a lot of the IT prep work has already been done

with 26 miles of new fiber optic cables,

400 miles of copper wire, and over 3,000 devices moved.

But tonight, the final install

and testing still has to happen.

This is the part that's going to affect us as customers.

This is the debranding and the rebranding,

in this case of terminal three,

so all of the Virgin America signs are coming down,

all of these Delta signs are going up instead.

Over on that side, there are some guys

working away on the IT systems,

a lot of cabling underneath that desk at the gate.

Over here, a wall's going up for a new bar and restaurant.

It's exactly two minutes to one AM,

so not that long until planes start landing here,

and an awful lot of work still to do.

The most important thing is making sure

that passengers know where to go

each of the three mornings after a night of moving.

They should all have had phone calls

and texts from their airline,

and then of course the signage and announcements

on the airport's public address system.

If all goes according to plan,

passengers won't have a clue about the choreographed

frenzy of work that happened under the cover of darkness.