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At a ribbon-connecting ceremony in front of a glassy bridge with an airfield-view, Mayor Eric Garcetti and airport officials clasped the buckle of an oversized seat belt and hailed the facility as an important piece of a $14 billion modernization of the world’s seventh-busiest airport.

The multilevel, airside building provides direct access between Tom Bradley International Terminal and south-facing Terminals 4-8, eliminating the need for passengers to exit one terminal, walk or take a shuttle outside, and go through TSA lines to enter the other.

Instead, they can take moving walkways and escalators through a towering, light-filled atrium, and rescreen at a much less crowded internal checkpoint.

Only two of four screening lanes have been needed to process about 3,000 passengers a day since a soft opening in the spring, officials said.

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