LAX Security Tightens After Glasgow Terror Attack - CBS News
Los Angeles International Airport is tightening security following a vehicle bomb attack at Scotland’s Glasgow airport.
Airport police say they're keeping a closer eye on parked vehicles and they're continuing their usual random checks of arriving cars. An airport statement says LAX [has] increased deployment of uniformed patrols and canine units.
June 29, 2007
Regional air travel at record level through May - El Toro Info Site
Preliminary data shows the combined volume of air travel from the SCAG region's six airports is at a record level. Using estimated traffic for Bob Hope Airport and actual results from the other airports, we find air travel for the first five months of the year has finally crept ahead of the previous record set for this period in 2000.
LAX still lags its pre-911 rate by approximately 400,000 passengers per month. The slack has been taken up by the other airports. John Wayne, Bob Hope and Palm Springs airports are operating at record rates this year. Long Beach and Ontario have been flat to down slightly since hitting peaks in 2005 but both are still busier than in 2000 or 2001.
JetBlue takes off with new non-stop service between San Diego - Boston and San Diego - Salt Lake City - SDAA media release
JetBlue Airways is expanding destination choices for its San Diego customers with the launch of a new non-stop service between San Diego and Boston, and San Diego and Salt Lake City, in time for summer travel.
Website Editor: The new flights leave Lindbergh Field in the evening. Return flights arrive at San Diego in the evening. These are the times when many airports tend to be least utilized.
June 28, 2007
Long Beach Airport sees pickup in traffic - El Toro Info Site report
Long Beach saw a 13.8% jump in passengers in May, raising year-to-date volume by 3.5% when compared to 2006. The increase came with a 3.3% increase in the number of air carrier flights.
Alaska Air, Delta and JetBlue are making up the loss of volume that occurred when American Airlines pulled out of LGB.
The airport still has 20 daily commuter airline slots authorized and unused. This month, the openings were relinquished by a startup airline that applied to use them.
John Wayne to implement time-saving security system - Daily Pilot
Expect to start seeing more advertising at John Wayne Airport, with the side benefit of less time waiting in security lines. John Wayne is one of six U.S. airports where the Transportation Security Administration recently approved new security checkpoint systems that officials said will save time.
The system includes tables for travelers to get organized before and after passing through security, carts to move bins from one end of checkpoints to the other, and new plastic bins for travelers' belongings featuring ads on the bottom.
Security Point's system has been in place at Los Angeles International Airport since July 2006.
Southwest Air to Slow Growth, Move to Boost Revenue - Bloomberg.com
During the fourth quarter, Southwest will eliminate 39 existing round-trip flights, including some longer nonstop routes such as Los Angeles to Baltimore.
June 27, 2007
Council approves JWA resolution - El Toro Info Site report
The Newport Beach City Council approved an airport limitations resolution last night that it hopes will be on the agendas of other city councils within about "six weeks".
City Manager Homer Bludau explained that part of the resolution language, opposing reduction in the amount of general aviation using the airport, is to avoid any increase in commercial traffic "which we don't control".
Council agreed that the overall purpose of the resolution was to block any increase in the existing noise footprint.
Activist Charles Griffin told the council that they should work to close the airport and share the land with neighboring cities for high-rise development. He proposed that a new city hall be constructed at the south end of the runway. Passengers should be ferried to Palmdale for flights.
June 26, 2007
Newport to consider flight path position - Daily Pilot
Not content with the right to veto any proposal for a second commercial runway at John Wayne Airport, Newport Beach is looking to leverage its power over airport expansion any way it can. The latest proposal is a position statement that ideally would be approved by the corridor cities in the flight path.
The Newport Beach City Council will consider the position statement today. It said there is no viable site for a second Orange County airport, and the cities will search for ways to satisfy the demand without expanding John Wayne Airport. See more below . . .
June 25, 2007
Sprinklers Douse Hundreds at LA Airport - ABC News
Fire sprinklers at a Los Angeles International Airport terminal turned on Sunday after a water pipe broke, dousing hundreds of people, an airport official said. The terminal was temporarily evacuated, and the baggage claim and screening areas were slightly flooded.
June 24, 2007
Newport Beach Council to pass JWA anti expansion resolution - El Toro Info Site
Tuesday, the Newport Beach City Council is expected to pass a resolution that is a model for a group of John Wayne Airport "corridor cities" whose councils support certain restrictions on the airport. The Corridor City Coalition is comprised of Newport Beach, Costa Mesa, Santa Ana, Tustin, Anaheim and Orange.
The resolution fails to directly address utilization of the terminal space, new gates and parking that will be added to the airport in the next several years. Rather, it opposes physical expansion of the airport perimeter, lengthening of runways, displacing of general aviation (which would free up capacity for commercial aircraft), and changes in the noise ordinance that incorporates limits on the number of flights and passengers allowed to use the airport.
In several ways, the action belatedly puts JWA expansion foes somewhat on the same page with El Toro airport opponents. Those who called their South County neighbors NIMBY's for wanting airports anyplace but Not In My Back Yard now acknowledge that we are all NIMBY's.
Elements of the resolution echo parts of Measure F which was passed by voters in 2000 and then overturned in the courts by Newport Beach activists. Measure F barred any expansion of any county airport or its operations - including JWA - without approval from 2/3 of voters countywide.
The new Corridor City Coalition also opposes any attempt by out-of-county entities to obtain control over JWA. During the fight over El Toro, Los Angeles sought to gain control of the former Marine air base as an annex to LAX. Some opponents of JWA expansion - including the head of the Newport Beach-based Airport Working Group - supported the LA attempt when it applied to El Toro but now oppose outsider influence on Orange County aviation.
More recently, Newport Beach concern has focused on protecting JWA from expansion pressure from the reactivated Southern California Regional Airport Authority.
The resolution supports development of access to out-of-county airports using roadway improvements and air-rail links. This has been a long-time position of El Toro opponents including ETRPA and this website.
Those who insisted, during the El Toro debate, that Orange County must be self sufficient in airport capacity in order to prosper have adjusted their convictions.
June 23, 2007
SANDAG rolls out 2007 plan: $58B package calls for car-pool, toll lanes on Interstates 5 and 15, Highway 78 - North County Times
San Diego County's 300-mile freeway system would undergo an extreme makeover of sorts, with dozens of new car-pool and toll lanes, under a $58 billion blueprint for road and rail improvements put out for public review Friday.
Car-pool lanes would go from being a rare feature on the system to a dominant one under the San Diego Association of Governments' draft 2007 regional transportation plan.
The association proposes building four car-pool lanes on Interstate 5 between Highway 56 and Oceanside. The agency intends to build four toll lanes each on I-5 north of Highway 76 to the Orange County line and on I-15 north of Highway 78 to the Riverside County line.
Website Editor: The plan is intended to shorten drive time on a route taken by North San Diego residents using John Wayne Airport and South OC residents going to Lindbergh Field.
Airport authority bill headed for Assembly committee - North County Times
A rewritten San Diego Airport Authority bill is headed for a hearing in the Assembly Local Government Committee on Wednesday. The bill passed in the state Senate earlier.
The legislation is aiming to restore public confidence in an agency that was shaken after last year's overwhelming defeat of the authority-sponsored measure to move the region's primary airport from Lindbergh Field to Miramar Marine Corps Air Station.
Addressing concerns of local officials, the board would have one representative from inland North County and one from coastal North County.
June 22, 2007
Ranking the largest airports - US News and World Reports
With the help of the Boyd Group, an aviation consultancy, U.S. News crunched some government figures to develop an Airport Misery Index: a ranking that shows which airports have the best and worst combination of delayed flights and crowded planes. Here's how the nation's 47 largest airports fared:
The airports with the highest Airport Misery Index have the worst combination of late and crowded flights. The ranking does not consider other factors such as food service, restrooms, decor, seating, security delays, etc.
Of the 47 airports, John Wayne rated a very respectable 11th place and LAX came in near the middle of the pack in 27th place.
Tourists aren't flocking to the U.S.- LA Times
The number of overseas visitors dropped sharply from 2000 to 2005. Mayors urge more spending on marketing.
Troubled by steep declines in international tourism, U.S. mayors are urging the federal government to spend more money on marketing the United States and to make the entry process friendlier and faster.
Responding to a survey by the Travel Business Roundtable, mayors from the country's top travel destinations said tourism — a driving force of the U.S. economy — needed to be a top priority.
The number of overseas visitors to the U.S. has dropped 17% since its peak in 2000 — and 20% in the top 15 cities — costing more than $100 billion in lost visitor spending through 2005, according to the Commerce Department.
Website Editor: The number of international passengers at LAX declined by 3% from 2000 through 2006. The largest fraction of foreign travel at the Los Angeles airport consists of trips between the Southland and Mexico, much of it for reasons other than tourism.
June 21, 2007
March panel drops S.B. County flight-route proposal - Press Enterprise
The March Joint Powers Commission on Wednesday abandoned a proposal that could have sent DHL's predawn cargo planes over several communities in neighboring San Bernardino County.
San Bernardino County residents might not have heard the departing planes, which have been awakening Riverside-area residents for more than a year, commission Chairman Marion Ashley said. But the "well had been poisoned" by the premature release of information about the path and the potential noise impacts, he added.
San Bernardino County residents were "up in arms and rightfully so," he said.
"You could fly a sparrow over (that route) now, and people would wake up and complain," said Ashley, a Riverside County supervisor.
United Airlines' turboprops will make way for big jetliners at LAX - Daily Breeze
Officials at Los Angeles International Airport hope to ease overcrowding and free up space for more flights by relocating dozens of small propeller planes that currently dominate one of the main terminals.
A bankruptcy judge cleared the way Tuesday for the airport to force the small planes, operated by United Airlines, into smaller, remote gates. That would open up an entire terminal for larger jetliners and could allow other airlines - most notably Southwest - to expand their operations at LAX.
June 20, 2007
Vote moves LAX closer to building new concourse - Daily Breeze
Los Angeles International Airport moved a step closer Monday to building an entirely new concourse that will better accommodate the next generation of super-jumbo jets.
Airport commissioners voted 7-0 to green-light the project, as well as a people-mover system that would connect the new gates to the existing international terminal. It was an administrative move, with no real debate, but it comes as pressure mounts for LAX to get itself into position for the future.
City Seeks 6th LAX Runway Study To Ensure Safety - CBS.com
The City Council asked the Airport Commission Wednesday to hire an independent firm to conduct yet another study to determine whether the north runways at Los Angeles International Airport should be moved closer to Westchester and Playa del Rey.
Five studies released June 1 concluded that the airport's northern runways should be moved at least 340 feet closer to the surrounding neighborhoods to improve safety at LAX.
Councilman Bill Rosendahl, whose 11th District includes LAX, contended the studies were biased and asked that a sixth study be completed by a panel of community representatives to develop alternatives to moving the runways.
Ecology is just part of the daily grind at the former Marine base - LA Times
A recycler is transforming materials from the former El Toro base into mulch and soil that will be used to build Irvine's Great Park.
For months, mammoth grinders have been busily chewing up what little remains of the old El Toro Marine base.
But instead of trucking tons of wood and glass from hangars and barracks to the county landfill, Irvine-based Tierra Verde Industries is in the midst of an extraordinary recycling project: reducing 300,000 tons of Marine history to mulch and topsoil.
June 18, 2007
LAX Expansion Betrayal? - LA Weekly News
Thinking they’d won, Westsiders eyeball an even more intrusive runway plan
You remember how everybody hated that old plan for fixing up LAX? The one that went down in flames a year or two ago? The one that helped get former Mayor James Hahn booted from office?
Let’s refresh. Hahn, just a few months before his election, won passage of a $9 billion plan for rebuilding Los Angeles International Airport, a place viewed as a total dump by pretty much everyone who uses it. The Hahn plan seemed to have a zillion different parts, all of them complicated: new terminals, a new shuttle system and, most famously, a new off-site passenger-loading area next to the 405 freeway that was immediately branded as a big, fat target for terrorists.
Everyone hated the LAX plan, or almost everyone. But no one hated it like residents north of the airport in Westchester and Playa del Rey, who eagerly lined up behind then-Councilman Antonio Villaraigosa, a rising star looking to unseat Hahn.
Now, airport commission president Alan Rothenberg, Villaraigosa’s top appointee at the airport, wants to improve runway safety, like Hahn before him. But with Rothenberg at the helm, airport officials have been talking aggressively about pushing the northernmost runway 340 feet north — right smack into the neighborhoods whose residents and business owners thought they had a deal with Villaraigosa to prevent airport expansion. More . . .
June 17, 2007
County battles plane noise - San Bernardino Sun
San Bernardino County leaders are mobilizing against a proposal to allow DHL cargo planes [using March Inland Port] to fly over residential areas of Colton, Rialto and Bloomington [in San Bernardino].
The March Joint Powers Authority, the public entity created to address the reuse of March Air Reserve Base, is looking at ways to relieve noise from cargo planes now flying over Riverside County.
Website Editor: March, San Bernardino and Ontario airports all competed for the DHL business. March won. "Be careful of what you wish for . . ."
June 16, 2007
Ruling against LAX rent hikes modified - LA Times
Though the current rate structure is still deemed unfair, airport officials see a silver lining.
The U.S. Department of Transportation on Friday upheld a ruling that rents charged by the city airport agency are unreasonable and discriminatory to low-cost carriers at two terminals at Los Angeles International Airport.
But the airport claimed at least a partial victory because the decision also stated that it could raise its rates to cover the increased cost of security and maintenance at its terminals.
The decision came one month after a judge for the transportation department issued a sweeping ruling in favor of the airlines after the city Airport Commission nearly quadrupled rent and maintenance costs for domestic carriers at Terminals 1 and 3.
June 15, 2007
Board rejects advertising signs on the Great Park balloon - OC Register
Also, the Great Park Corp
June 14, 2007
Ontario Airport Noise – El Toro Info Site report
Yesterday’s post about John Wayne Airport - repeated in part on OC Blog - brought a response from a JWA neighbor who wants Newport Beach spared airport noise. He said additional passengers flights should go to LAX, Long Beach and San Diego.
However, LAX and Long Beach neighbors have made it clear that they don’t want them.
As an afterthought, the poster then suggested that they go to Ontario.
The noise problem at Ontario – where traffic is forecasted to quadruple - doesn’t get a lot of press. An Inland Valley Daily Bulletin article, posted on this website on December 3, 2002, reported that over 500 homes near ONT were slated for soundproofing and about 2,500 additional homes were eligible. About 500 homes had been identified as qualified for voluntary purchasing.
As of a year ago, 860 homes had been soundproofed and 150 purchased according to a report made to the Ontario Airport Noise Advisory Committee. ONT has a much larger noise impact footprint than JWA has in Newport Beach.
It is understandable for residents near any airport to want to push the air traffic to somewhere else. Unfortunately, people also live there too and don’t like the noise any better. Unless we are to stop flying, our existing airports probably will have to accomodate them. Fortunately, newer planes are getting quieter.
June 13, 2007
John Wayne Airport operating at record level - El Toro Info Site report
In May, John Wayne
Airport served 875,576 passengers, its busiest May ever and an increase
of 6.9% over the same month last year.
This is without the 300,000 square foot third-terminal expansion that is just getting underway.
Until 2003, the airport was restricted to fewer than 8.4 million passengers by an agreement between the county and Newport Beach. In 2003, the MAP cap was raised to its current level, in part at the insistence of the air carriers.
No one at the county is speaking publicly about how many passengers can be handled physically once the half billion dollar expansion project is completed and how many will be allowed to use the airport when the current MAP cap expires in 2015.
The airport's long-range utilization is likely to remain influenced by its impact on neighbors and political considerations rather than by its actual physical capabilities or the desires of airlines to add service.
June 12, 2007
Getting All Ethical - Voice of San Diego
Visitors to the San Diego County Regional Airport Authority's website now have the opportunity to report ethics violations and concerns.
The authority recently launched a hotline and included a link on its homage. The authority describes it as "an avenue for citizens and Airport Authority employees to report suspected financial or operational improprieties and/or waste of funds or resources."
The authority, which has fielded its share of questions about internal ethics, gives this inspiration:
The
time is always right to do what is right.
--Martin Luther King, Jr.
--Martin Luther King, Jr.
June 11, 2007
Gridlocked skies - Increasing demand, lack of ground access will clog regional airports, planners say - Copley News Service
As Southern California's airports grow increasingly crowded in the coming decades, San Diegans are likely to find themselves flying more often out of a San Bernardino County airport with a Canadian-sounding name. . . Ontario.
If most San Diegans haven't heard of it, that's because LA/Ontario now serves only 7 million passengers annually, less than half the volume at Lindbergh Field.
Many experts see LA/Ontario evolving into a regional hub where passengers flying out of San Diego and other cities will connect to longer-haul flights. But at the same time, they worry that chronically jammed freeways will increasingly prevent millions of passengers from reaching LA/Ontario and the region's other major commercial airports on time.
Only one of the seven major commercial airports in Southern California is served by passenger train or light rail, and it's one of the smallest: Bob Hope Airport in Burbank.
June 10, 2007
Major revamp of LAX is stuck at the gate After 15 years of little more than occasional face lifts, efforts to find common ground on an airport modernization plan are on hold again. - LA Times
Today, the airport that ushered the country into the jet age in the 1960s and set the standard for international service in the 1980s is ill-prepared for the new planes that are expected to revolutionize air travel.
Fed up with its cramped ticket lobbies and waiting rooms, gridlocked access roads and outdated airfield, passengers and airlines are increasingly taking their business elsewhere.
Lack of cohesive political leadership, a history of mistrust between the city's airport agency and nearby communities, grandiose visions for expanding the facility and an incredibly complex planning process have combined to leave officials without a blueprint to modernize LAX. And time is running out.
An effort to devise a modernization plan - which has spanned 15 years and cost Los Angeles about $150 million - is on hold while the new executive director of the city's airport agency, Gina Marie Lindsey, becomes acquainted with boxes and boxes of documents. More . . .
June 9, 2007
[SD] Airport agency settles on $145 million budget - San Diego Union-Tribune
Regional airport officials approved a $145 million operations budget that includes more money to help map out improvements at Lindbergh Field.
The 2007-08 spending plan represents a 6.5 percent increase over the current San Diego County Regional Airport Authority budget.
It includes additional funds to flesh out plans for major changes at Lindbergh for the next decade or more, including $243,300 to expand the agency's planning staff.
Seven months after voters rejected a proposal to pursue a new airport at Miramar Marine Corps Air Station, officials are eager to move ahead with improvements at the airfield.
Among the ideas are adding at least 10 terminal gates, building a five-level parking garage and relocating the major car-rental companies.
June 8, 2007
Runway planning rekindles animosity in Westchester - Daily Breeze
LAX's neighbors resume threats to sue if relocation proposal proceeds.
An escalating fight over the future of two runways at Los Angeles International Airport has rekindled an old spirit of mistrust among the airport's neighbors - and with it, the familiar threat of lawsuits.
The two runways parallel each other on the north side of LAX, and airport planners think they would work more safely and efficiently if they had more space between them. That could involve pushing one of the runways several hundred feet closer to the homes and businesses of Westchester.
City Councilman Bill Rosendahl ripped the reports as full of "bogus arguments" and called for a new study focused only on safety issues.
"No one has proven anything to me whatsoever that the north runway needs to be moved an inch," he told several hundred residents who turned out Tuesday for a town hall meeting.
Airport Cleanup Project Targets Toxic Navy Landfill - Voice of San Diego
An empty field directly west of Lindbergh Field looks innocuous, all full of tan soil and dried weeds, and wrapped in a flimsy chain-link fence.
More lurks beneath the surface. The groundwater is contaminated with concentrations of mercury more than 150 times above the permitted human exposure rates. The water has high levels of lead. Air samples have found high levels of carcinogenic chemicals such as benzene and vinyl chloride. The 51-acre site, once used as a Navy landfill, sits adjacent to the airport's Terminal 2, about 500 feet from San Diego Bay. The landfill is unlined, lacking the now-requisite layers that keep dirty water and gas from seeping out.
The San Diego County Regional Airport Authority is proposing a $61 million restoration of the site, which would clean out decades-old rubbish and burned garbage. The authority wants to use the land to either expand terminal gate space or provide more overnight parking for airplanes.
June 7, 2007
LA/Palmdale Regional Airport Opens to United Airlines Service to San Francisco and Points Beyond - LAWA Media release
Los Angeles and Palmdale city officials, Los Angeles World Airports (LAWA) and United Airlines will hold a press conference and special dedication ceremony at LA/Palmdale Regional Airport (PMD) to signal the start of regularly scheduled air service to San Francisco with connecting flights to over 160 worldwide destinations.
In attendance will be: Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, City of Los Angeles Mayor; Jim Ledford, City of Palmdale Mayor; Mike Antonovich, Los Angeles County Supervisor; Bill Rosendahl, Los Angeles City Councilmember and Chair of the Southern California Regional Airport Authority; Alan Rothenberg, President, Los Angeles Board of Airport Commissioners; Gina Marie Lindsey, Los Angeles World Airports Executive Director; Bill Norman, Senior Vice President, United Airlines.
Website Editor: Mayor Villaraigosa is flying up from L.A., avoiding the long drive to Palmdale. Other officials are coming on a special bus.
Click for LA Times story on the resumption of Palmdale flights.
June 6, 2007
Riverside County officials set eyes on San Bernardino County for DHL cargo route - The Press-Enterprise
A proposal to test new routes for DHL cargo planes leaving March Air Field near Riverside could shift the aircraft to skies above San Bernardino County and the communities of Bloomington, Colton and Rialto.
The San Bernardino County route is the favored route among four alternative paths the March Joint Powers Authority is seeking Federal Aviation Administration permission to test.
The proposed test routes were unveiled Tuesday before the Riverside County Board of Supervisors, amid mounting pressure from Riverside-area residents to end DHL's early-morning noise disruptions that have plagued their neighborhood for the past year.
Palmdale airport option offered - DailyNews.com
Hoping to turn L.A./Palmdale Regional Airport into a bustling operation, officials are targeting the Santa Clarita Valley in an advertising blitz tied to the launch this week of commercial jet service to San Francisco.
Officials are counting on Santa Clarita Valley travelers to make the drive of about 40 miles to Palmdale rather than drive about the same distance - but taking more time for traffic, parking and lines - to Los Angeles International Airport.
They concede there may be stronger competition from Bob Hope Airport in Burbank, which is just 23 miles away and offers more than 30 flights a day to the Bay Area.
June 5, 2007
Pilots seek more LAX runway separation - LA Times
They say a planned increase in distance isn't enough to alleviate safety concerns.
Pilots who use LAX added Monday to an escalating controversy over how to improve safety on the facility's north airfield, calling for an even wider separation of the two parallel runways.
In a rare appearance before the Airport Commission, representatives of the Air Line Pilots Assn. agreed with findings in reports released last week that the runways' tight spacing contributes to close calls between aircraft and cannot accommodate the coming generation of super-jumbo jets.
Those reports suggested separating the runways, currently 700 feet apart, by 340 feet more. But the pilots group said that would not be enough and called for moving the outer runway 370 to 443 feet north — which could force officials to expand the airport's northern boundary into the already affected community of Westchester.
Airport agency's new chief to earn $305,000 - LA Times
The city's Airport Commission agreed Monday to pay the new executive director of Los Angeles World Airports, which operates LAX and facilities in Ontario, Van Nuys and Palmdale, an annual salary of $305,015.
Gina Marie Lindsey, who started her new job Monday, will earn a salary at the top end of a scale recommended by the city's administrative code.
U.S. airlines' on-time rate through April was lowest since 1995 - Bloomberg News
U.S. airlines managed only 72.5 percent of flights on time this year through April, the worst rate for the period since the federal government in 1995 began compiling the figures in the current format.
The previous low was 72.6 percent for the first four months of 1996, according to U.S. Bureau of Transportation Statistics data.
LAX had 77.1, Orange County 79.9, Burbank 80.4 and Ontario 80.6 percent ontime records so far this year, due largely to better weather.
June 3, 2007
Alleged plot's damage would have been limited - LA Times
Jet fuel doesn't explode easily, experts say, and fire would not have spread along airport pipelines.
Aviation experts cautioned Saturday that the alleged plot targeting [fuel supply facilities at] John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York would have faced many hurdles, not least of which is the fact that jet fuel does not easily explode.
"The level of catastrophe that may be created is much more limited than most people would expect," said Rafi Ron, former head of security at Tel Aviv's Ben Gurion International Airport. "The fuel that we are talking about is mostly jet fuel, which, unlike the gasoline most people put into their cars, is not that susceptible to explosion."
At Los Angeles International Airport, about 6 million gallons of jet fuel are stored on site and used daily, officials familiar with airport operations said. In addition, three pipelines carry off-site fuel to the airport.
The need to have so much fuel on hand has long created safety concerns. In Los Angeles, vulnerability to earthquake damage led to the creation of checks and balances for the airport's fuel supplies.
Website Editor: The delivery of jet fuel was an issue discussed in the debate over aviation reuse of the former El Toro base.
June 2, 2007
LAX's north runways need to be moved apart, studies say - LA Times
Airport officials cite safety concerns in seeking to push the north side farther out. Some political leaders criticize the reports.
In a move with potentially major ramifications for the airport-adjacent communities of Westchester and Playa del Rey, officials released studies Friday suggesting that safety issues require further separation of the two runways on LAX's north side.
The reports drew immediate criticism from three elected officials whose districts include the airport and surrounding communities. Such an action could require expanding the airport, which already runs close to Lincoln Boulevard and a bustling commercial center.
Several of the analyses recommend that officials shift the outer runway 340 feet north and install a center taxiway to reduce close calls between aircraft and to accommodate larger jets scheduled to arrive soon at LAX.
Officials also contend that the north airfield must be reworked to accommodate larger aircraft. When Airbus landed its mammoth new A380 at LAX on a test flight earlier this year, controllers were forced to delay arrivals and departures throughout the entire airport for 15 minutes while the jet taxied to a cargo complex.
Airport officials said a significant north airfield reconfiguration is crucial to stop the migration of lucrative international flights to newer airports.
