L.A. to seek Palmdale airport timeline, budget

The motion, by 6th District Councilwoman Ruth Galanter, passed unanimously as a consent agenda item.

Such easy victories have been rare for Galanter, who has been fighting in the city's political trenches for 10 years in an effort to prove the viability of a Palmdale airport.

Now, she's closer than ever. With the motion that passed Wednesday, Los Angeles World Airports - the city's department of airports - will take six months to study the potential of Palmdale's airport.

That means listing all the necessary construction, and estimating its costs and completion dates. LAWA will also come back with a marketing strategy that can convince passenger airlines to open terminals in Palmdale.

"They have to describe to me and the City Council what they propose to do to stimulate aviation activity in Palmdale," Galanter summarized.

In determining the construction, speed and cost of developing Palmdale Regional Airport, LAWA will refer to the Palmdale Feasibility Study, which set forth a number of goals for the airport.

Among those goals, the Palmdale Regional Airport will aim for 4 million annual passengers by 2010 and 7.3 million by 2020. LAWA, when it returns in six months, will propose a marketing and construction plan that can fulfill those expectations.

Those figures assume a best case scenario, however, and people acquainted with the airport issue are slightly more conservative.

David Myers, a Palmdale City Council member, who has become familiar with the airport's politics as the chair of the Southern California Association Governments' Transportation Committee, thinks an annual passenger number around 2 or 3 million is more realistic for 2010 and around 7 million for 2020.

Galanter is not entirely convinced that those numbers can be achieved, either, considering the likelihood that unforeseen political obstacles will delay the airport project.

"The problem with all forecasts is that they overlook the inescapable realities of politics," she said.

"I think the forecast will probably change a million times, depending in part on what happens at the other airports (in the region), and on how successful our department of airports is at cutting deals with airlines to make (the Palmdale Regional Airport) worth their attention."

Airlines, of course, need to be persuaded that there's profit to be had for service to Palmdale. Historically, it's been a tough sell, but that may be changing in the near future.

Myers believes both Burbank and Los Angeles International airports will "cap-out" between 2010 and 2020, and crowding there will make Palmdale more attractive to passengers and thus a lucrative place for a commercial terminal.

There's also more political support for a Palmdale airport than there has been before. At an Oct. 1 press conference, Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan admitted the necessity of a Palmdale airport, as did LAWA Interim Director Lydia Kennard.

Myers, who attended that press conference, said it was a turning point for the Palmdale airport.

"I believed then as I believe now that there is a very real desire on the part of Los Angeles to make this work, that this wasn't just a feel-good appearance for the mayor."

Still, Galanter has fought too many political battles to think that she's won the war.

"I think what we've done is a first step, and everyone in the Antelope Valley will tell you that we have an airport without airplanes, so our real goal is to create a climate in which we can work with the airlines and get some service that way," Galanter said.