LAX Terminal 4: What It Has Since American Moved In

Two things this post used to say were wrong, and they are worth stating plainly before anything else.

Terminal 4 is not a Delta terminal. Delta left this side of LAX in 2017 and now flies from Terminals 2 and 3. Terminal 4 is American Airlines’.

And Terminal 5 no longer exists. It handled its last passengers on 28 October 2025 and was demolished the following month, which is the same day American finished consolidating its operation into Terminal 4. Any advice about walking next door for a better lunch is advice about a building that is not there.

Which airline actually uses Terminal 4?

American Airlines, and it has since the 2017 terminal reshuffle that sent Delta to Terminals 2 and 3.

The confusion is old and persistent, partly because Delta occupied Terminal 5 for years before that move, and partly because “Terminals 4 and 5” was a natural pair to talk about — they sat side by side on the eastern arm of the horseshoe and shared a connector.

That pairing is now literal. American ran flights from both terminals until Terminal 5 closed; everything is in Terminal 4 now, and the rebuild going up on the Terminal 5 site will share a single entrance with Terminal 4 when it opens.

What is in Terminal 4?

FlyIndex’s directory lists three restaurants and six shops, and those counts were taken before American’s October 2025 move. Treat them as a floor rather than a current inventory.

Sammy’s Woodfired Pizza & Grill is the sit-down option — pizza and salads, table service.

Homeboy Cafe is the airport outpost of the Los Angeles social enterprise bakery. Good coffee, good pastries, and a genuinely worthwhile operation.

Dunkin’ at Gate 45 covers the caffeine-and-move-on case.

On the retail side: Hudson News and Hudson Books for the newsstand case, Hollywood Style and Entertainment Weekly for the LA-themed merchandise LAX does more of than any other US airport, See’s Candies, and a DFS Duty Free.

Three restaurants was the thinnest food offering at LAX when it was counted, against 20 in the Bradley terminal and 13 in Terminal 1. Whether it stayed that thin after absorbing a terminal’s worth of departures is the open question, and the honest answer is that the directory has not been recounted since. The full LAX restaurant list is the current state of that data.

What closed with Terminal 5

Ten restaurants and seven shops, all of them on 28 October 2025.

The Farmers Market cluster was the loss that mattered — Loteria Grill, a general Farmers Market stall and Farmer’s Market Coffee To Go, plus Monsieur Marcel and Ford’s Filling Station as the two sit-downs. There was also a Rock & Brews, a Donburi Bistro, a Lemonade and two Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf counters.

If Loteria was the reason you used to make that walk, it still trades at LAX in Terminal 7.

The Terminal 5 page has the full list and the closure detail.

Where can I walk to from Terminal 4 after security?

Nowhere, and this is the part that changed.

FlyIndex’s terminal records, taken from LAX’s own terminal pages, note no airside link from Terminal 4 to any other terminal. The connector it did have ran to Terminal 5, and Terminal 5 is gone. Reaching Terminal 6, Terminal 7 or the Bradley terminal from a Terminal 4 gate means exiting to the horseshoe and clearing a checkpoint for the second time.

Airside connections at LAX are narrower than most people assume in general: Terminals 2 and 3 share a checkpoint and connect to each other, Terminal 3 links to the Bradley terminal, and Terminals 7 and 8 share a consolidated checkpoint. Terminals 1, 4 and 6 each stand alone.

So plan to eat where you are screened. The LAX terminal directory has each terminal’s current connections, and the LAX terminal map is worth a look if you are unfamiliar with the horseshoe.

How much time will security leave me?

This is what decides whether any cross-terminal walk is available to you.

LAX’s TSA peak is 25 minutes on Sunday at 9 AM. Sunday 11 AM runs 24 and Sunday 5 PM runs 23. Friday at 9 AM hits 23, and Monday at 10 PM hits 23.

Those are modest peaks for an airport this size. The problem is the floor: LAX records just 10 hourly slots at five minutes or under across the entire week. The checkpoint essentially never empties.

Practically, assume 15 to 25 minutes at security whenever you fly. Budget two hours before departure and you will typically have 60 to 75 minutes airside, which is enough for a walk to Terminal 6 or the Bradley terminal and a meal. Budget 90 minutes and you will have about 30, which is enough for the walk but not for a sit-down.

The LAX TSA wait times page has the hourly breakdown.

What is being built on the Terminal 5 site?

A complete replacement, not a refurbishment. Terminal 5 was demolished in November 2025 and a new building is going up on the site under the Terminal 4/5 Modernization Program, which merges the two terminals’ entrances into one 300,000-square-foot headhouse with 16 security lanes.

For a Terminal 4 passenger the meaningful change is the connection: the new arrangement puts a post-security link between the two terminals and on to the Tom Bradley International Terminal above ground, replacing the tunnel arrangement it had before.

It is due to open before the 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

Should I plan around Terminal 4 at all?

If you are flying American out of LAX, you do not have a choice — this is your terminal.

What you cannot do any more is walk out of it for a better lunch. Terminal 5 was the escape hatch and it is not there, so eat landside before you screen, or accept what the terminal has. For screening rules on anything you buy before a connection, particularly liquids over the limit, TSA’s guidance covers the exceptions.