May 24 - May 30, 2010
Rail officials eye airport - Burbank Leader
High-speed rail representatives are strongly considering a stop near Bob Hope Airport as the sole San Fernando Valley station for the planned 800-mile system, local officials said.
Rail representatives early this year expressed a preference for station options in Burbank along the San Fernando Road corridor, either in the city’s downtown area or near Glendale, on Alameda Avenue. But after hearing public concerns about connectivity to the airport, the authority is instead considering a stop near Bob Hope, at Hollywood Way, said David Kriske, Burbank’s principal transportation planner.
LAX leads the way in regional recovery
When regional air travel plummeted after 9-11, LAX lost most heavily as millions of passengers abandoned the big airport for more user friendly regional airports.
This year, with Southern California air travel up more than 4 percent in the first quarter, LAX is leading the recovery.
This comes about, not as a result of renewed love for LAX on the part of passengers but because airlines are concentrating flights at LAX for the sake of greater capacity utilization.
| SNA | LGB | ONT | PSP | BUR | LAX Domestic | LAX Intl | LAX total | Region | |
| 3 Mos 2010 | 1,986,442 | 636,840 | 1,095,182 | 534,414 | 1,047,910 | 9,574,185 | 3,740,669 | 13,314,854 | 18,615,403 |
| 3 Mos 2009 | 1,888,642 | 662,355 | 1,127,010 | 520,638 | 1,070,324 | 9,153,763 | 3,477,101 | 12,630,864 | 17,899,793 |
| Change 2009-10 |
+97,800 | -25,515 | -31,828 | +13,776 | -22,414 | +420,422 | +263,568 | +683,990 | +715,610 |
Allegiant offering new Long Beach to Bellingham flights - Contra Costa Times
Long Beach Airport's newest carrier, Allegiant Air, will begin offering nonstop jet service to Bellingham International Airport in Washington on July 1, Allegiant announced Wednesday.
The new flights to and from Bellingham, which is just below the Canadian border and minutes away from Vancouver, will operate three times a week using a 150-seat, MD-80 series jet aircraft.
Allegiant Air joins Colorado-based Frontier Airlines as Long Beach Airport's newest carriers, picking up the remaining daily commuter slots, capped at 41 under a noise-ordinance program.
May 17 - May 23, 2010
City Life: Advocates effective in methods - Daily Pilot
The home page of the website for AirFair, the group working to improve your quality of life by trying to limit passenger levels at John Wayne Airport, features this quote by Margaret Mead: “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.”
A quick label for Melinda Seely, AirFair president, and Jean Watt, a board member, would be “activists,” but that would be taking the easy way out. Call them “advocates.”
Now, the airport is under construction again, adding a new terminal and a new parking structure. And while that may seem a world away to you, it is really just right down the street.
Plane diverted to DC area after fire in cockpit - Yahoo
A fire in the cockpit of a United Airlines flight from New York to Los Angeles caused an emergency landing outside Washington, a spokeswoman for the Federal Aviation Administration said.
The fire aboard the Boeing 757 was extinguished before the plane landed Sunday night at Dulles.
Great Park construction delayed by housing crash - OC Register
The $1.4 billion needed to fully transform the old El Toro Marine Base into a Great Park in Irvine is years away, delayed by the struggling housing market and economy, park officials confirmed this week.
The big orange balloon, the preview park, farm land, and some soon to be constructed sports fields, picnic areas and community gardens will be all there is for a number of years at the Great Park – an ambitious project with plans for a canyon, lake, museums, and an expansive open space promoted to be on a scale of New York City's Central Park and San Diego's Balboa Park.
The park will be left with only about $17 million in unallocated funds by next summer, park officials say. Annual expenses and revenues will even out within the next few years, but the money needed to actually construct the 1,347-acre Great Park is still years away.
Great Park Chairman Larry Agran acknowledged this week that the project's construction phase is running several years behind expectations, but denied that the project as a whole has suffered.
“I don't know where the idea materialized out there that somehow we would have the great metropolitan park developed full scale within a matter of a few years,” Agran said. “Nobody ever promised that, and certainly I believe we have been quite clear that you build out a park of this magnitude in typically a 15- or 20-year process.”
Website Editor: - This website supported the Orange County Central Park and Nature Preserve initiative - Measure W - because we believed that a second Orange County airport at El Toro would be an environmental and financial disaster. We were cautious about Irvine predictions for the Great Park, dutifully recording several Irvine forecasts of a park that officials expected to have well under development by now.
In 2005, Chairman Agran announced that sports fields and a wildlife corridor would be under construction in 2006. Work appears to be nearly five years behind those plans.
The 2005-06 Great Park budget contemplated that runway demolition would be underway. The first few feet were broken up in 2006 but then work stalled.
May 10 - May 16, 2010
John Wayne Airport serves more passengers in April
In April 2010, the Airport served 745,302 passengers, an increase of 3.1% when compared to the April 2009 passenger traffic count of 722,797.
Commercial aircraft operations increased 3.0%, while Commuter aircraft operations decreased 65.7% when compared to the levels recorded in April 2009.
Total aircraft operations decreased in April 2010 as compared to the same month in 2009. In April 2010, there were 17,212 total aircraft operations (take-offs and landings), a decrease of 2.4% when compared to 17,643 total aircraft operations in April 2009.
General aviation activity, which accounted for 58% of the total aircraft operations during April 2010, was essentially unchanged when compared to April 2009.
Long Beach Airport Welcomes Frontier Airlines - Media release
Currently, the Long Beach Airport serves 14 nonstop markets, including San Francisco, Las Vegas, New York City, Boston, and Washington D.C. Beginning May 14, Frontier will connect passengers to LGB's 15th destination, Denver, CO.
"Frontier's 73 destinations provide a wealth of new locations to better serve our passengers' business and leisure travel needs throughout the United States, Mexico and Costa Rica," said Airport Director Mario Rodriguez. "Attracting a new air carrier amidst this tumultuous time in the aviation industry speaks to our fiscal solvency and prime market position."
Website Editor: A spot check of July fares shows Frontier offering more time selections and slightly lower fares from John Wayne airport.
Flight cancellations come in light of new tarmac rules - Marketwatch
Blustery winds at New York's JFK force two jets to return to the gate: [LAX bound travelers delayed]
Strong winds combined with new rules to protect passengers from getting stranded on the tarmac during lengthy delays resulted in the airline industry's first flight cancellations last weekend. It's a harbinger of what travelers will experience this summer.
Introduced in December, the new rules come in response to recent horror stories of passengers being stuck on planes for extended periods without food, fresh water or clean lavatories.
As of April 29, U.S. airlines operating domestic flights can no longer leave planes sitting on tarmacs at large and midsize airports for more than three hours, except for reasons of security and safety. Carriers in violation face fines of up to $27,000 per passenger.
Airlines have said the new rules would lead them to cancel flights rather than risk the fines.
Over the weekend, airlines operating out of New York City's airports reported a small number of cancellations due to poor weather. Of those numbers, two jets actually taxied away from the terminal and then later returned before facing fines that could easily add up to millions of dollars.
One of those attempted departures, Delta Air Lines Inc. flight 155 from JFK to Los Angeles, waited on the tarmac for about 90 minutes on Saturday before giving up and returning to the gate at about 9 p.m. Eastern. Stranded customers had to wait until the next morning for another flight.
May 3 - May 9, 2010
Airline merger would have little OC impact - OC Register
The announced merger of Continental and United Airlines will likely have little impact at John Wayne Airport. The airlines will have to choose which terminal to house its ticketing counter.
The merger plan, formerly announced Monday, is still in the planning stages and requires federal anti-trust approval. But the airlines and airports around the country are already moving ahead on the “what if” questions if what’s being billed as “the world’s largest airline” comes into being. Flight cutbacks are expected in markets where Continental and United go head-to-head, such as Chicago-to-Houston.
Few changes are expected at first at John Wayne Airport, which both airlines serve. When it comes to Orange County, the two airlines have no overlapping service that seems ripe for the chopping block.
Long Beach Airport moves ahead with improvement project - LA Times
After years of controversy and a court battle involving local schools, the Long Beach Airport is moving ahead with a $136-million improvement project designed to modernize the facility without sacrificing its historic Art Deco terminal or reputation among travelers for convenience.
The project also satisfies community groups and city leaders who worked to scale back earlier proposals, which they feared would have weakened the city's noise ordinance that limits commercial and commuter flights at the airport because of surrounding residential neighborhoods.
Plans call for a new 1,989-space parking structure, ramp improvements and a concourse with a central garden and 11 gates that will replace the temporary trailers where travelers now wait for flights. About $2 million will be spent to refurbish the old terminal, which was built in 1941 and declared a historic landmark by the city decades later.
The project, however, will retain the open-air feeling of the current terminal complex, and passengers will still walk across the tarmac when boarding or leaving their planes. Baggage claim also will be partially enclosed as it is today.
April 26 - May 2, 2010
More for Money - OCBJ Readers Letters
The OCBJ calls
The project to add a 300,000 square foot third terminal was
approved ten years ago during the dying days of the fight over
As required by
At the time, county studies estimated JWA’s runway capacity
at almost 14 million annual passengers but the supervisors agreed with
In part due to the restrictions imposed on air carriers,
John Wayne serves only 20 non-stop destinations today, down from 25 in
2005.
I have no problem with airport neighbors and their electeds
doing everything possible to keep down the adverse impacts of a
commercial airport on their community. Airports are best located away
from residential areas. I supported Measure F that would have
restricted the growth of both John Wayne and
I do have a problem with government spending large sums of
public money on capitol projects with inadequate justification. In the
case of John Wayne, the plans that were approved for the expansion call
for a lot more space in the terminals and in the parking lots but not
on airplanes.
The negotiated passenger caps limit the number of seats
allowed on planes. The agreement that sets the caps will come up for
review next year and there is growing pressure to keep down the
utilization of the new terminal space.
As the OCBJ article notes, “the airport is collecting a $4.50 per
passenger fee . . . to fund about three-quarters of the
expansion.”
Perhaps it is tea party
mentality, but I think that the flying public deserves more air service
for their money, or the money should not be spent.
Leonard Kranser, Editor, El Toro Info Site
Long Beach's airport of the future - Press-Telegram
Artist depictions of major renovations set for the historic Long Beach Airport show the the outside of the airport and passenger areas. The work, which will be done in phases and is expected to cost $136 million, began with construction of a parking structure and street improvements. The concourse, set to be ready by 2013, will accommodate the growth in passengers, which has climbed to 3 million annually.
The images reveal a highly stylized airport designed to replace crowded and aging passenger concourses that have swelled with passengers as volumes more than doubled in recent years.
Under the modernization plan, 11 gates accompanied by waiting areas and several gift and snack shops will sit parallel to the airport tarmac.
Work on the new concourse will begin later this year, with completion scheduled for 2013.
