Airport friends and foes have their say

Editorial Focus: During a two-day session to discuss prospects for the Palmdale Airport, a consultant painted a bright picture for the future. But airline representatives said the project will not fly for many years.

L.A. World Airports currently is developing a master plan that focuses on expanding the capacity of LAX from 60 million passengers a year to 100 million.

Our Valley Press headlines covering the session's two successive days summarized the discussions:

"Consultant sees major airport role"

"Palmdale air service plan plummeting"

On Monday, July 27, a consultant hired by Los Angeles World Airports said Palmdale Regional Airport could have up to 6.5 million passengers annually.

The consultant, Dick Mudge of Hagler Bailly, a Virginia firm, said his optimistic projection was based on data from a report released earlier this year by the Southern California Association of Governments, which said Southern California's population will jump by 43%, or 22.35 million people, by the year 2020. Northern Los Angeles County is expected to experience a population increase of 169% in the next 22 years.

He said if transportation improvements are in place in the Antelope Valley, and the Southern California population continues to blossom, Palmdale Regional Airport can't help but blossom, too.

"You will end up with a pretty sizable airport out here," Mudge said. He expects something comparable to today's Ontario Airport.

Attending the meeting was Ruth Galanter, a member of the L.A. City Council who wants Los Angeles World Airports to consider expansion of Ontario and Palmdale before adding onto LAX.

"This is a very good start," she said after the first day. "A year ago, I couldn't get anyone to pay attention to Palmdale."

Galanter said she can take partial credit for Los Angeles World Airports' hiring a consultant to study the Palmdale Airport land, and for the meetings taking place in Palmdale last week.

The city of Los Angeles has spent $100 million on the Palmdale Airport and it's time to evaluate its value, Jack Driscoll, director of Los Angeles World Airports, said. The consultant's study was part of that effort.

But in the Tuesday session, airline executives were extremely negative about the prospects for Palmdale Airport in the early years of the next century.

A United Airlines official said the airport won't experience major development in this lifetime.

United Express, a commuter shuttle that subcontracts with United Airlines, was the last carrier to offer passenger service from Palmdale, but it was shut down in April 1998 because of unprofitable passenger-load factors.

If air service were to return to Palmdale today, it would have to be subsidized, said Larry Clark of United Airlines.

"If it changes in the future, there will be service. I do not see connecting service coming out of Palmdale in my lifetime," he added.

A representative of Southwest Airlines agreed. "For Southwest, the numbers just aren't there today, especially since we serve Burbank, Ontario and Los Angeles International," said Leslie Carr, who manages property for the airline.

Lt. Col. Bob Catlin, commander of Air Force Plant 42, said Palmdale could become an aircraft maintenance hub.

"Boeing, Lockheed and Northrop are already at the site, and all have skilled workers," he said. The plant has vacant hangar space available right now, left over from the B-1 bomber program.

Reporter Michael Bitton wrote that discussion of two empty Boeing hangars seemed to interest Joe Richardson, airport properties manager for United Parcel Service in Kentucky. He said they could be used for maintenance and repair of the UPS fleet.

But in our view, the most important factor in the L.A. World Airports controversial plan to expand LAX was voiced by Jerry Epstein, a member of the High Speed Rail Authority and former airport commissioner, who said, "It's just common sense you can't handle the traffic. Look at the 405 Freeway. We don't have any more room. Why can't we learn from what others have done?"

The San Diego Freeway in the vicinity of LAX is jam-packed with vehicular traffic many hours each day. Adding more vehicles into that motorized morass will bring about absolute gridlock, horribly extending the ground-access time to and from the airport by hours and hours.

Expansion of already overloaded LAX would be the biggest urban mistake since Troy allowed the Greeks to wheel in the huge wooden horse filled with soldiers who opened the gates to the Greek army.