L.A.'s marketing will include Palmdale

Editorial Focus: Thanks to Los Angeles City Councilwoman Ruth Galanter, Palmdale Airport will be included in a new global marketing effort.

Things, they say, take time.

But progress can be made through victories - no matter how small.

The case in point is Los Angeles City Councilwoman Ruth Galanter's coup last week when she persuaded her colleagues to change L.A.'s overseas marketing program to include all the city's airports, and not just LAX.

This means that as marketers are sent around the world to encourage expanded passenger and cargo service, Palmdale Regional Airport, Ontario International Airport and Van Nuys Airport will be included in the package.

The previous plan was to promote only LAX!

Galanter, who is Palmdale Airport's primary ally on the L.A. council, has vocally opposed the plan to expand LAX from 60 million passengers a year to 100 million passengers annually.

Her constituents, who live near the airport, are up in arms at the prospect of thousands of noisy, airpolluting flights being added to the frequent-flyer schedule that plagues them day and night.

Using an increasingly common legislative tool that allows the council to seize control of a decision made by city commissions, Galanter gained the unanimous support of her colleagues in overruling the Airport Commission.

The council ordered that the contract with the Los Angeles Convention and Visitors Bureau be changed so that all four of the city's airports be promoted in Europe, Asia and South America.

Two weeks ago, the airport commissioners had OK'd a partnership pack with the bureau to promote LAX only!

Galanter favors diverting more airport traffic to Palmdale as well as exploring Ontario - which is opening up additional terminals this month.

A 1998 Southern California Association of Governments report estimates a 43% Southland population growth by 2020, with a 98% increase in airline passengers, and a 197% rise in cargo tonnage.

The same report puts north Los Angeles County at the top of the population growth ladder, with a 169% increase in the next 22 years.

Ruth Galanter's victory in expanding the marketing effort to include all four city-operated airports may be considered small in the big scheme of things, but it is an important forward step for the development of Palmdale Airport.

We thank her for her energetic and continued support of our home, the high desert.