Air travel in region up in January
Total passenger traffic for the six commercial airports in the Southern California region was up by 0.8 percent in January compared to the first month of 2010.
The recovery was mixed with LAX and Long Beach showing increased volume. Ontario was essentially flat. Orange County's John Wane Airport and Burbank's Bob Hope Airport showed small decreases.
LAX up 4 percent in February.
Los Angeles International Airport continued to lead the region's air travel recovery with February traffic up 4.1 percent when compared with February 2010. Year to date, for the first two months, LAX volume was up 2.5 percent.
LAWA's executive director envisions a brighter future for ONT - The Inland Valley (CA) Daily Bulletin
Despite her doubts about a timely transfer of LA/Ontario International Airport, Gina Marie Lindsey is optimistic about its future growth in passengers.
Speaking to the Board of Airport Commissioners on Monday, Lindsey, LAWA's executive director, predicted a better year for the struggling airport, which hasn't seen traffic levels so low since the 1980s.
On Monday, Lindsey stunned Ontario city officials when she told the commissioners that a transfer of control, because of its complexities, could take years. See report below.
For more than a year, Ontario officials have been pushing Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and LAWA - which manages ONT - to either transfer control of ONT or amend the Joint Powers Agreement between the two cities.
ONTARIO: Hopes to take charge of airport deflated - Riverside Press-Enterprise
Any hope that the city of Ontario had in assuming control of the airport within its boundary by July 1 was dismissed Monday at a Los Angeles World Airports board meeting.
Transferring management of the airport to the city of Ontario would be complicated whether through a competitive bidding process or by modifying the agreement that already exists between the city and LAWA and require a "pretty sophisticated" financial arrangement that would need widespread political support, Gina Marie Lindsey, executive director of LAWA, which owns and operates LAX and Ontario International Airport, told the agency's board of airport commissioners.
"We're not optimistic this will take months. It's probably more like years," she said.
Officials with the city of Ontario have hoped to take control of the airport by July 1, the start of the fiscal year.
March 14 - March 20, 2011
JWA reports small gain in February traffic
605,390 passengers used John Wayne in February, a 1.0 percent increase over the previous year.
Year to date, volume was down by 0.7 percent.
Regional airline to leave Ontario for LAX - The Press-Enterprise
Great Lakes Aviation plans to stop flying to and from Ontario International
Airport and move its two remaining Inland flights to LAX, instead.
The airline's federal subsidy to fly the routes ends April 30. The airline has been connecting smaller cities with Ontario since September 2008, most recently flying 19-seat planes for daily non-stop routes linking the Inland airport with Prescott, Ariz. and Visalia.
Great Lakes has received federal grants through the Department of Transportation's Essential Air Service program to offer routes to and from cities lacking the built-in demand warranting flights to larger hubs.
The agency pays the company $1.6 million to fly between Ontario and Prescott. The route to and from Visalia earns Great Lakes $1.5 million in federal
funding, according to a document on a Department of Transportation website.
The airline accounted for 3 percent of all the flights at Ontario airport last year but carried just 11,477 departing and arriving passengers.
Bob Hope airport reports a down month of January
Passengers totaled 340,954 at Bob Hope Airport, a 3.7% decrease from the same month in 2010.
Airport officials look east, locally - Glendale News Post
The Bob Hope Airport could gain back some of the 1.4 million travelers lost since the start of the recession by hosting direct flights to more hubs east of the Rocky Mountains, and by convincing San Fernando Valley and high-desert residents to use the airport closest to their homes.
Aviation consultant Jack Penning told the Burbank-Glendale-Pasadena Airport Authority last month that Bob Hope’s reputation as “the anti-LAX” — the faster and more convenient alternative — is a boon that can be exploited.
An important opportunity for Bob Hope Airport is in offering more direct flights to cities such as Houston and Chicago, which double as destinations and important airline hubs. There is no direct service from Burbank to Houston or Chicago.
“It’s all about non-stop,” Penning told the airport authority. “The problem is a lack of nonstop destinations.”
March 7 - March 13, 2011
LAWA has doubts about Ontario managing the airport - Press-Enterprise
The current manager of Ontario International Airport has doubts about transferring control of the airport to the city of Ontario, according to a document prepared by Los Angeles World Airport's staff.
The city of Ontario's proposal to manage Ontario airport (the city of Los Angeles would still own it) was submitted on Jan. 12 to LAWA officials.
Since then, Ontario officials haven't revealed what the proposal entailed or what LAWA's response included.
The document was prepared for a discussion about management options of Ontario airport during Monday's regular LAWA Board of Airport Commissioner's meeting. The discussion was tabled until March 21 because of time constraints on Monday. The document, though, was sent to members of the media before the meeting in anticipation of the discussion.
In them, LAWA staff refuted Ontario's claims that the agency has mismanaged the airport which has had a 33 percent drop in passenger traffic since 2007, and said the agency doubts handing control to an entity that has no experience managing a major commercial airport.
LAWA staff cautioned later that the information in the document could change prior to the next commissioner meeting.
Ontario City Manager Chris Hughes hadn't seen the document as of Tuesday and declined to comment. City officials have said they don't want to negotiate a proposal with LAWA in public.
March 1 - March 6, 2011
Airport group hopes to extend covenant - Daily Pilot
Moorlach addresses annual meeting and is optimistic about keeping regulations in place past 2015.
By 2015 Newport Beach residents could be hearing jet noise during all hours of the night. That would be an extreme outcome if local officials and activists fail in their negotiations to continue a flight curfew and other limits to John Wayne Airport, which expire at the end of that year. Website Editor: Not so. The night curfew continues indefinitely as a separate County regulation which cannot be changed except by the Board of Supervisors after conducting an Environmental Impact Study.
In the meantime, officials are planning for discussions with the Federal Aviation Administration and air carriers, with the hopes of extending the 1985 agreement.
At the annual Airport Working Group meeting Wednesday, officials outlined their concerns and goals in maintaining caps on passengers and flights, and to preserve the time limits at the county-owned airport.
"Working on the settlement agreement will be my top priority," said County Supervisor John Moorlach. "We're just going to have a goal of 10.8 [million passengers] and go from there."
Moorlach, who represents Costa Mesa, Newport Beach and other communities, was referring to the current annual passenger cap.
The biggest pressure to loosen the limits will come from the air carriers. Last month, the FAA released a report that predicted U.S. airlines will double their business in the next 20 years.
Airlines charge a premium to fly from JWA, where more affluent travelers are able to pay, [Airport Director Alan] Murphy said.
The air carriers are "the true enemy," Murphy said. "The FAA is really going to look to the airlines to see if it's a good deal or not."
The FAA is perhaps the touchiest party to the negotiations. To promote commerce, Congress passed legislation in 1990 that prohibits airports nationwide from restricting commercial aircraft operations without approval from the FAA.
But the JWA "settlement agreement" was established before then, and the FAA approved the 2003 amendments. The original agreement was a settlement from lawsuits between AWG, other activist groups, Newport Beach and the county.
Now, officials want to deal with FAA administrators carefully.
"We have to be very careful not to irritate the FAA," Moorlach said.
US bill would impose curfew on jet noise around Hope, Van Nuys airports - Contra Costa Times
After decades of wrangling over nighttime jet noise, San Fernando Valley lawmakers introduced a bill Monday they hope will help silence the skies over Bob Hope and Van Nuys airports.
The Valley-wide Noise Act submitted to a House transportation committee would institute a nighttime curfew on all jet flights at the airports.
The proposed legislation follows the FAA's rejection in 2009 of a 10 p.m.-to-7 a.m. curfew after a nine-year, $7 million study by the agency that governs Bob Hope Airport.
Pilot of Airbus That Nearly Collided with Plane Sees Dark Days Ahead in Skies Above John Wayne Airport - OC Weekly
A cockpit alarm prevented a collision between a small aircraft and an Airbus 319 jetliner in the skies above John Wayne Airport this past September.
Later, on the FAA's Aviation Safety Reporting System log, the Airbus 319 pilot predicted that the mix of large jets and light aircraft at JWA "will end badly someday. . . . There is no way we should have been allowed to get this close."
LAX up, Ontario down in January
LAX served 4,664,231 passengers in January, a 1.2 percent increase over the same month in 2010. Domestic volume was up by 2.0 percent while international volume dropped by 0.9 percent.
LA/Ontario airport saw 364,443 passengers, a small 0.1 percent drop when compared to January 2010.
JWA traffic off in January
Passenger traffic at Orange County's John Wayne Airport was down by 2.2 percent in January compared to the same month in 2010.
The airport served 636,742 travelers.
