AIRPORT: Ledford says potential 'fantastic'

Airport may be ready to take flight

That metaphor belongs to Los Angeles City Councilwoman Ruth Galanter, who has campaigned for opening of the long-vacant Palmdale airport to alleviate strain on Los Angeles International Airport, which is adjacent to her 6th Council District in west Los Angeles.

The city of Palmdale has joined Galanter in the crusade for an Antelope Valley-based airport, recognizing the economic growth that it could bring to the region.

But neither Galanter nor Palmdale could make the airport a reality without the support of Los Angeles World Airports, an agency within the city of Los Angeles that owns about 18,000 acres of land around the Palmdale airport and is leasing the terminal at Air Force Plant 42.

An announcement made Friday at a press conference at Los Angeles City Hall committed Los Angeles and its airport agency to developing and marketing Palmdale Regional Airport as a partial solution to the air transportation needs of Southern California.

"This agreement is really going to make a difference in how we move forward as a region," said Palmdale Mayor Jim Ledford, speaking at the press conference. "It's going to change the perception of Palmdale and the Antelope Valley.

"We think the economic development potential is fantastic."

Conversely, Galanter and her constituents were afraid of the potential LAX expansion.

The fourth-largest airport in the world, LAX is swamped with passenger and cargo demands, and the facility inevitably will grow. Galanter hopes a Palmdale airport can absorb some of that growth and limit LAX's encroachment on her district.

"The short-term plan is to expand Palmdale over 10 years to handle 4 (million) to 7 million passengers annually," Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan said. "If you have high-speed rail, that expansion could be even more dynamic."

Of course, the high-speed rail route from Los Angeles to Palmdale, which would connect Palmdale's airport to L.A.'s Union Station in about 20 minutes, is still a giant uncertainty.

Even without the high-speed rail, the Palmdale airport could be handling 7 million passengers annually by 2020. With it, the airport might grow to the size of the Ontario International Airport, which handles 10 million passengers per year.

If the Palmdale airport has seven million passengers by 2020, it will have absorbed about 5% of air transportation demands in the Southland region, said Lydia Kennard, interim executive director of Los Angeles World Airports, who conducted a study last year to foresee Palmdale airport's growth potential.

Though she was visibly pleased about the agreement announced Friday, Galanter is withholding judgment until she sees the project into its maturity.

"Today is much like a birth," Galanter said. "We've got the baby. Now it seems it's up to us to make sure it's properly nourished."

The "nourishment" is an investment plan with a dollar amount and a service commitment from airlines to begin passenger service to Plant 42, an LAWA-leased terminal that has not seen a commercial flight since April 1998.

Galanter said she would introduce a motion at the City Council that would accomplish those plans within six months, so that the terminal at Plant 42 can open soon after.

Meanwhile, there is $28 million of federal, state and local funds that could help the city of Palmdale secure right-of-way for a Route 138 bypass from Highway 14, constructed to allow better access to the terminal. Also important are upgrades in ground access systems at the airport.

If that infrastructure is developed, if the airport agency is successful in persuading airlines to schedule Palmdale stops and if Los Angeles implements an investment plan that can fund the airport's expansion, Palmdale Regional Airport could resemble Burbank Regional Airport by the end of the next decade.

Kennard and agency also will coordinate a marketing campaign to attract airline services and passengers to Palmdale, much as the agency is now doing since the airport expansion at Ontario.

Before passengers are convinced that Palmdale's airport is a feasible alternative to LAX, a few myths needed to be dispelled, including those that the airport's altitude would make it difficult to land planes and that Palmdale is some great distance from Los Angeles.

"The 3,000-foot elevation is not a factor," said Ledford, leaping to the microphone after the question was raised by a reporter. He went on to explain that the airlines promoted that misconception because with Palmdale's airport they would lose the money they make on connected flights.

"The challenge for the LAWA and the FAA is to sit down and say, `Come on fellows, get real,' " Ledford said.

With LAX bursting at its seams, convincing passengers to come to Palmdale would seem like an easy sell. Apparently, though, Palmdale has an identity problem with its neighbors over the San Gabriel Mountains.

"The people in the Antelope Valley know where Palmdale is," Galanter said, "but other people think it's in Siberia. The truth is you can get there from here. You can get there from anywhere."

Rep. Howard P. "Buck" McKeon, R-Santa Clarita, thinks much of the future of the Palmdale airport hinges on its appeal to L.A. air travelers who may not lose any time landing in the Antelope Valley.

"Many people in Los Angeles don't realize how convenient and close it is," McKeon said. "When you take into account the time and hassle of traffic on I-405, plus the expense of parking and taking a shuttle once you get to LAX, it's more convenient for people in the northern half of the county to fly out of Palmdale."

L.A. County Supervisor Michael D. Antonovich, who represents the Antelope Valley, is skeptical of the agreement. He pointed out that though it is a first step, that step has been made before without further progress.

In 1968, for instance, a Palmdale Intercontinental Airport seemed inevitable, but today the land on which that was to be developed remains desert.

"What is needed is action, not verbal promises which date back to the '60s when 17,000 acres of land were acquired in Palmdale to relieve congestion at LAX," Antonovich said. "The time is overdue to either build Palmdale Airport or sell the property to the cities of Lancaster and Palmdale so they can build the airport that our region so desperately needs."