LAX 'zoo' tops 51 million in passenger use

Editorial Focus: At its present rate of growth, Los Angeles International Airport will top 66 million passengers annually by the end of the century. Isn't it about time to develop Palmdale Regional Airport?

One is located at Griffith Park. The other is near Inglewood and is generally known as LAX.

Los Angeles International Airport handled more than 51 million passengers in 1994, approximately 3 million more than in 1993.

If 3 million passengers are added each year, there would be 66 million passengers going through the airport facilities in the year 2000.

A visit to the LAX "zoo" these days is a trying experience with thousands and thousands of twolegged animals running around, trying not to miss their flights.

The horseshoe loop around the airport is a horrendous traffic jam, with hundreds of limousines, taxis, private cars, trucks, buses, and vans circling like vultures, looking for a place to pull in to the curb.

In 1968, some visionary leaders in the Los Angeles Department of Airports announced that the department was going to acquire 17,700 acres east of Air Force Plant 42, Palmdale, for what was then designated Palmdale Intercontinental Airport.

Land acquisition moved forward, but development of the Palmdale facility was put on hold by a lawsuit and a recession in the airline industry.

At one point, circa 1980, the Department of Airports board announced that Palmdale would be developed when LAX topped 45 million passengers a year.

But later, that 45-million cap was removed and the growth is continuing at a rapid pace now that the nation - and the airlines - are lifting off into the friendly wild blue yonder of recovery.

In the meantime, back at the ranch, Palmdale is served by only one airline - United Express (Mesa Airlines).

Despite all the burgeoning problems of air and ground congestion at LAX and the stiff opposition directed against expanding Burbank Airport, Palmdale has not been recognized as the longrange answer to the Southland's aviation worsening woes.

The leaders who were making decisions in 1968 were far more visionary than today's hierarchy which operates today in a steamy political climate - 27 years later.

Metrolink is pioneering rail service to Palmdale and Antelope Valley has grown to 350,000 inhabitants. More than 3 million people live within easy, 50-minute driving distance of Palmdale - a less time-consuming route than battling through the bottleneck of the Sepulveda Pass to LAX.

The whole of Southern California needs the near-term expansion of the Palmdale Regional Airport, now operating on leased property at Air Force Plant 42.

The existing joint-use agreement permits up to 400 takeoffs and landings daily, using existing runways procured by the military in years past.

Given just a little encouragement, readily accessible Palmdale Regional Airport can begin to take its rightful place in the Southland's aviation scheme of things.

And, what's really important to the passengers, is one happy fact:

The parking is free!