In addition to allowing LAX to add new gates and increase passenger traffic by several million people a year, the modernisation plan approved by Los Angeles City Council includes a rail link that connects terminals with a new rental car facility and the region's growing mass transit system.

The proposed plan, known as the Landside Access Modernisation Programme, includes five major elements, such as a train, or Automated People Mover, that would connect three on-airport stations to the Metro Rail and transit services.

The other elements are the new rental car facility, two facilities for additional parking and road improvements.

"On behalf of LA 2024, we would like to applaud Mayor [Eric] Garcetti and the City Council for working to modernise LAX, so that it offers a better experience for travellers from all over the world," said LA 2024 chairman Casey Wasserman.

"LAX is already the world's leading origin and destination airport, and the nation's second busiest, and we welcome these improvements that will offer the best first impression to all visitors.

"LAX’s modernisation plan is another example of how LA 2024 offers a low-risk, sustainable and innovative vision for the Games that fits with the city's ongoing transformation and investment in its future."

The approval of the modernisation plan last Wednesday (August 24) came on the back of airport officials settling a decade-long dispute with a neighbouring community group.

Local residents have been against the project as it called for moving a runway to the north, which they claimed would disturb adjacent neighbourhoods.

LAX will not move the runway under the new agreement, which will see fresh safety features added to it.

"It’s not about building for the future," LAX chief executive Deborah Flint said at an event hosted by California-based public radio station KPCC.

"It's about solving problems that are inherently fundamental that we need to get solved."

On Sunday (August 28), unconfirmed reports of gunshots, later described by police as just "loud noises", sparked evacuations at LAX.

People fled the airport amid the reports, with scenes of abandoned luggage on pavements.

Traffic to the terminal was halted and no flights were allowed to land, but operations soon resumed.

Los Angeles Police Department, who are investigating the noises, tweeted that no shots had been fired and there were no injuries.

Budapest, Paris and Rome are also bidding to host the 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

The International Olympic Committee is due to elect its chosen host city at its Session in Lima in September 2017.