View is cloudy over Palmdale flight numbers

It looks bleak when examining the latest numbers. Ridership is down 49.7% when comparing January-to-June statistics with the same period last year.

However, Cora Fossett, a Los Angeles Department of Airports public affairs spokeswoman, said comparisons are difficult because 1994 was an extraordinary year, and an airline ended service here early this year.

A little more than 10,500 people flew to or from the airport this year, compared to almost 21,000 passengers in 1994.

The difference is less drastic when comparing June 1995 and June 1994: 30.9% fewer people, or 1,849, flew this year; 2,677 people flew during June 1994.

Skywest Airlines' departure from Palmdale is a key factor in the lower ridership figures, Fossett said. Another reason for this year's lower numbers was 1994's Northridge earthquake, which sent shock waves through airplane commuter business, she said. Commuter air carriers were a prime method of travel when much of the ground transportation infrastructure was damaged.

The elimination of one of the airport's airlines may also have led more people to consider alternative transportation, such as the Metrolink commuter train service or car-pooling, she said.

For those reasons, Brandon Eaton, United Express' Palmdale manager, said comparing the numbers from this year to last year fails to give an accurate picture of what's really happening in the Antelope Valley.

"There is no way to compare. If you judged profitability on how we did this morning, we had two capacity flights," he said of the 19seat aircraft the airline uses.

Until the company releases its next quarterly report, expected in October, there's no accurate method to determine how successful local air service is, he added.