Victorville vs. Palmdale in cargo race

EditorialFocus: Despite promises that Palmdale Airport would lead Southern California's outlying fields in developing more air freight business, Victor Valley has already begun receiving cargo flights from overseas. Palmdale won't even have a plan for six more months.

He said converting military installations such as George, Norton, March and El Toro to commercial airports will prove totally impractical.

Landing air freight and passenger service for underused Palmdale Regional Airport is "a tough nut to crack ... but we're going to try, and I'm pretty optimistic," he said.

Now, three years later, there are still no flights of any kind at Palmdale Regional Airport but on Wednesday, Oct. 27, a Boeing 747-200 touched down at the Southern California Logistics Airport (formerly George Air Force Base) in the high desert, ushering in a new era for the Victor Valley as a hub for international air cargo.

The cargo carrier brought a heavy load from Hong Kong.

It's plain as the nose on the face of the 747 that the Victor Valley is already far, far ahead of the Palmdale Airport in the competition to become a cargo terminal.

It was in June 1968 that the Palmdale Airport project was announced by the Los Angeles Department of Airports (now known as Los Angeles World Airports).

Thirty-one years and four months later, the residents of Antelope Valley are still waiting for some concrete developments that would begin bringing that dream to a reality.

The promise that no Southland ex-military airfield would get ahead of Palmdale in the race to provide commercial air services has proved hollow.

On Oct. 6 of this year, L.A. City Councilwoman Ruth Galanter proposed that a six-month deadline be set for airport officials to produce a reality-based plan for the marketing and development of Palmdale Regional Airport.

Her motion was subsequently unanimously approved by the full L.A. City Council.

Her wholly appropriate action followed an Oct. 1 press conference to announce that Los Angeles and L.A. World Airports were "committed" to market and expand Palmdale Regional Airport as a partial solution to the air transportation needs of Southern California.

"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."

But, without Galanter's insistence on a firm deadline, the planning might easily drag on for more and more decades into the 21st century.

In the meantime, Victor Valley can be expected to continue to develop the former George Air Force Base into a huge cargo distribution hub while the city of Los Angeles twiddles its thumbs.