Grant to fund aviation-needs study

The grant to the Southern California Association of Governments commissions a study of regional air transportation needs through 2020.

By that year, the regional governments group predicts Southern California's airline passenger and air-cargo volume will triple.

The study was supported by Congressman Howard P. "Buck" McKeon, R-Santa Clarita, and Palmdale City Councilman David Myers, who represents the Antelope Valley on transportation issues for the region.

"We are assured by SCAG that the study will focus on Palmdale Airport," said David Foy, district director for McKeon.

The airport closed its doors earlier this year when the last commercial airline, United Express, abandoned flights to Los Angeles International Airport.

Myers said the funding was called for at a regional aviation committee meeting and is part of a newly expanded effort to examine aviation from a regional perspective.

During the meeting in Los Angeles on Sept. 18, Myers met with Federal Aviation Administration administrator Jane Garvey and other committee members to discuss Palmdale Airport as an alternative to plans to expand Los Angeles International Airport.

Several citizen groups, including L.A. City Councilwoman Ruth Galanter, oppose expansion of LAX and support feeding passenger traffic into Palmdale instead.

"One of the recommendations was that Palmdale be allocated 12 million passengers per year" by 2020, Myers said.

Myers said he approached Garvey for her support of Palmdale as an airport, but she wouldn't take sides, he said.

He's also spoken to several groups from the South Bay area who support routing air traffic to Palmdale.

"Palmdale is going to be one of the big focuses" of the study, Myers said.

Other airports to be examined are El Toro, Burbank, Long Beach and Southern California International (formerly George Air Force Base) at Victorville.

But, "there is no issue which consumes the time on regional aviation discussions as much as Palmdale," Myers said.

Current regional government projections, which allow for expanding LAX, show Palmdale's air traffic growing to only 300,000 passengers per year - a fraction of growth projected for every other commercial airport in Southern California.

However, Myers said he is confident that a regional airport in Palmdale is inevitable.

"The airlines aren't going to decide this; the city of Palmdale isn't going to decide this; LAX isn't going to decide this. This is going to be driven by demand," Myers said. "This is inevitable; this is not a government decision; the market's going to drive this."

Myers said he hopes the study will call for infrastructure improvements at Palmdale Airport and an examination of surrounding airspace.

Tim Merwin, the regional government group's aviation planner, said the study will look at the whole airport system, and Palmdale will be included in that.

"We are a supporter of air services at Palmdale," he said, "but SCAG doesn't currently view Palmdale as a replacement for LAX."

The study will explore ways of making Palmdale more effective as an airport, Merwin said, including bringing air cargo into Palmdale.

Estimates show a severe shortage of air-cargo capacities at regional airports by 2020.

By then, the regional group forecasts show 8.9 million annual tons of air cargo shipped in and out of Southern California.

In 1995, Merwin said, 3 million tons were shipped in and out of the region.

"Even if LAX expands to what its master plan calls for in air cargo, it leaves roughly half of the air cargo demand unserved," Merwin said.

McKeon believes Palmdale's air transportation demand will be boosted by completion of a highspeed rail line in 2015. The line is intended to run from San Francisco to Los Angeles with a stop in Palmdale.