Guthrie night at Great Park is a crowd pleaser
Thousands of happy attendees tapped their feet to the mostly 1960's music of Arlo Guthrie, his son Abe and grandson Krishna at the Great Park's Preview Park stage Saturday night. The event is part of the Great Park Night Flight Concert series with more to come. See ocgp.org
The weather was nearly perfect with mild temperatures and very little wind. Early arrivals were able to snag tickets for free nighttime rides on the Orange Balloon that rose and descended near the stage like a huge yo-yo. Many brought lawn chairs, signed up for rides, and then picnicked on the large grass area while awaiting their turn to go up in the balloon or hear the 8:00 PM concert.
Admission and parking were free - a welcome relief from the bloated fees of most major entertainment venues - thanks to money from the park's budget.
San Diego loses its overseas airline
Canadian discounter Zoom Airlines announced that it is giving up the ghost and canceled all flights, including those from San Diego.
In December 2007, four years after Lindbergh Field lost overseas service, Zoom agreed to initiate nonstop flights from San Diego to London in June.
Airport officials wooed the Canadian based economy fare airline with a mix of financial incentives, beating out San Francisco and Seattle for the service.
Among other things, the San Diego County Regional Airport Authority offered $200,000 in marketing incentives to promote the new overseas flights here and in London, and $100,000 in temporary landing fee and terminal space rent waivers.
Zoom carried a total of 4,279 passengers between Lindbergh Field and London in June and July.
LAX service workers walk off jobs - Daily Breeze
Hundreds of unionized airline service workers at Los Angeles International Airport called a strike and walked off the job Thursday afternoon after labor negotiations broke down with their employers.
The job action is expected to last through the busy Labor Day weekend and could potentially disrupt travel plans for an estimated 825,000 airline passengers expected to visit LAX.
Airport officials warned that the strike could cause delays and advised travelers to arrive two hours before domestic flights and three hours before boarding an international flight.
Update: Airline service workers are back on the job a day after going on a strike. Union spokesman Mike Chavez says the workers went back to work Friday after Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa brokered a three-week cooling off period when negotiations will continue.
LAX, ONT passenger volume slips in July
Los Angeles International Airport served 5,791,568 passengers in July, 4.32 percent fewer than in the same month last year.
LA/Ontario Airport dropped to 573,892 passengers for the month, 15.46 percent fewer than in July 2007. ONT has been hit hard by the collapse of ExpressJet.
Palmdale report stats for July
LA/Palmdale Regional Airport served 2,070 passengers in July. This was an increase over July 2007 - the airport's first full month of operation after being reactivated - when 1,772 passengers used the facility.
It was fewer passengers than used Palmdale in March, April, May or June.
Palmdale Flyer a Flop - El Toro Info Site report
Taxpayer-funded free bus service for Palmdale Airport passengers was launched with fanfare on April 2. Through July - after four months of operation - the Palmdale Flyer busses carried a grand total of 71 passengers.
The Flyer has averaged less than one passenger a day. The 53-seat busses have made the 50-mile runs between Palmdale and Van Nuys airport an estimated 700 times to date, rolling empty on most trips.
Supervisor Mike Antonovich put together the experiment, with LA County pledged to contribute $275,000 to run the busses through December. However, scheduled service will stop on September 2 and be replaced with free on-demand shuttles. See last week’s story below.
Based on the budget, the total cost of the trial program could compute to thousands of dollars per passenger ride.
The Flyer is just one piece of the multi-million dollar subsidy being poured into the attempt to resurrect Palmdale airport.
Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa promised to revive PMD as part of a package deal with the city of El Segundo. The deal sought to placate Los Angeles International Airport neighbors and get their acquiescence to LAX expansion plans. They were promised “regionalization” of air travel to other airports.
Meanwhile, Palmdale air travel is negligible and probably insufficient to sustain itself once the subsidies run out.
In our view, Palmdale Airport will not get off the ground so long as government officials avoid the serious needs study, heavy duty planning and huge infrastructure investment required to justify and create any major airport. Given state and national transportation funding realities, this is unlikely to happen.
Meanwhile in Newport Beach . . .
A consultant team under the leadership of former Newport Beach Assistant City Manager Peggy Ducey is putting the final touches on a study of passengers at John Wayne Airport. The study, using $200,000 of taxpayer money, was funded through the Orange County Transportation Authority.
The study collected data on JWA passengers to identify their place of residence or business and to ascertain whether they can take public transit to another airport outside of Orange County.
NPB City Manager Herman Bludau told his city council that “Ultimately, we want to get those passengers [from] outside the county to other airports.”
Southwest will trim 196 flights - OC Register
Southwest Airlines Co ., which had resisted the kinds of capacity cuts being made by other carriers, will eliminate nearly 200 flights early next year as it struggles with high fuel costs and a weakening economy.
Southwest will cut 196 flights while adding only six new ones – Orange County to Vegas among them – in its schedule that takes effect Jan. 11. That is nearly 6 percent of the airline’s daily schedule of close to 3,400 flights.
Schwarzenegger will sign rail measure - OC Register
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Tuesday approved legislation designed to strengthen wording of a high-speed rail measure on the Nov. 4 ballot.
The legislation would modify Proposition 1, which would provide $9.9 billion to pay for a Los Angeles to San Francisco route – the first leg of the proposed high-speed rail line.
Among other things, it would establish a panel of experts on high-speed rail systems to evaluate the state’s construction plans.
Other provisions would limit how much bond money could be spent on administration and environmental and engineering studies. It also would require detailed funding plans before starting construction of each segment of the line, which eventually would extend to San Diego, Sacramento and Oakland.
Niche markets profitable for Allegiant airlines - The Arizona Republic
Facing the same headwind of record fuel costs, Allegiant Air is adding destinations to its service and planes to its fleet as major carriers limp in the opposite direction.
Flushed by a 95.2 percent load factor in July, the carrier by late October will fly from its [Phoenix] Gateway hub to 15 markets - five of them new - where winters get very cold and Allegiant's Mesa-bound planes are full.
"We're very pleased with Phoenix-Mesa Gateway, we have an especially good working relationship with the airport administration, and the new routes we've just announced reflect that," Robert Ashcroft, the carrier's vice president of planning, said of possible expansion. "We continue to work with Gateway management. And it's possible we'll have more to announce, but it would be premature to talk about that now."
Website Editor: In Southern California, Allegiant connects Palm Springs and San Diego to Bellingham, Washington and Santa Barbara to Las Vegas.
San Diego growth slows in July
Passenger traffic at San Diego's Lindbergh Field was off by 1.5 percent in July compared to the previous year.
Year-to-date, the airport is running 4.0 percent ahead of the same seven months of 2007.
Week of August 18 - August 24, 2008
Long Beach posts July uptick thanks to short lived ExpressJet
Long Beach airport served 288,711 passengers in July, 2 percent more than in the same month last year.
A temporary boost was provided by ExpressJet, a startup carrier that did not serve Long Beach last summer. ExpressJet has announced that it is discontinuing flights this September after less than a year of operation.
For the seven months year-to-date, total Long Beach traffic was down by 2.7%. The near term picture is cloudy due to the departure of ExpressJet and the announcement that Jet Blue will be adding LGB flights starting this fall.
Palmdale Flyer bus service to use vans, require reservations - Antelope Valley Press
Starting next month, travelers wanting to use the free Palmdale Flyer bus service, which shuttles airline passengers between the Palmdale and Van Nuys airports, will need to call ahead for reservations.
Since it started in April, the [taxpayer subsidized] Palmdale Flyer service has used large commuter buses to transport ticketed passengers between the two airports, but it will start using vans on Sept. 3.
On that day United Airlines, the airline serving the L.A./Palmdale Regional Airport, doubles its number of daily flights to San Francisco, using smaller propeller planes instead of the faster, larger jets it has been using since the flights to San Francisco started.
Foundation for the Great Park financials
Click here for our updated library of financial data for the non-profit Foundation for the Great Park - not to be confused with Irvine's Great Park Corporation which is charged with designing and building the park at the site of the former El Toro air base.
The Foundation raised $881K during its 2006-07 fiscal year and spent $666K, mostly on fundraising and "public education" or PR to support its fundraising.
The Foundation has selected promotion and development of a botanical garden as its pet project. The group has $569 K in its treasury as of its latest year end.
Struggling to Stay Aloft - Washington Post
Small-City Airports Threatened by Carriers' Service Reductions
Lynchburg, Virginia and other small-city airports, which represent the majority of the nation's 524 airports with commercial service, are under threat. Airlines are cutting back service to keep their businesses alive as they confront economic contraction and volatility in oil prices. Smaller airports are vulnerable because they rely on smaller, more expensive planes and with fewer passengers have less economy of scale.
Website Editor: If this sounds like Palmdale, read on.
Despite millions of dollars spent to improve Lynchburg's airport, departures have fallen from 20 a day a decade ago to just six. Airlines are so reluctant to fly here that Lynchburg can't pay them to come. The airport is dangling a $405,000 incentive package to get an airline to connect the city to a big hub to the north, such as Dulles International Airport or Philadelphia International Airport. The largest part of the package is $250,000 from a small community air service grant from the Department of Transportation.
The number of passengers boarding planes at Lynchburg in 2007 was 55,675 -- about half of the peak number in 1994, two years after the new terminal opened.
Foreign airlines cutting flights to Los Angeles International Airport - LA Times
Los Angeles International Airport, battered by financially devastated domestic airlines, is now headed for trouble from overseas.
Foreign carriers, until now a bright spot for the airport in an increasingly dismal year, are slashing flights at LAX amid high fuel costs and slowing international demand, dealing yet another blow to Southern California's economy.
For Southern California passengers, the cuts would add to travel woes including fewer nonstop flights to overseas destinations, higher fares and crowded planes, experts said.
Although improvements to the Tom Bradley International Terminal at LAX are not in jeopardy for now, airport officials are expected to be under pressure to rethink paying for certain amenities or look for ways -- including a hiring freeze -- to cut costs.
A 2007 study by the organization estimated that one daily transpacific or transatlantic flight on a wide-body jet pumps about $620 million annually into the local economy and sustains 3,120 jobs. LAX is scheduled to lose at least 15 long-haul flights in the fall.
LAX fees in holding pattern - Daily Breeze
City officials expressed mixed feelings about a new federal rule that would allow Los Angeles International Airport to use landing fees as financial incentives for commercial airlines that shift flights to airports in Ontario and Palmdale.
The new provision, adopted last month by the U.S. Department of Transportation, could be the key long sought by city and airport officials who support the notion of diverting air traffic from LAX to other less-congested airports in Southern California.
However, the idea of subsidizing flights out of Ontario does not sit well with Gina Marie Lindsey, executive director of Los Angeles World Airports, the agency that operates LAX, Ontario, Palmdale and Van Nuys airports.
LAX already supports deficits incurred by operating Palmdale and Van Nuys airports, along with the FlyAway bus system, Lindsey said.
Airport officials would rather use the landing fees - which are generally used for day-to-day operations and construction - to help pay for a modernization project expected to cost about $10 billion over the next decade.
Airlines share the cost of operating LA/Ontario International Airport. As more airlines pull operations from Ontario, the remaining carriers have to pick up the slack and pay more to keep the airport's doors open.
It is unclear whether the DOT's new rule will be useful at LA/Palmdale Regional Airport, which does not have an efficient transportation connection to downtown Los Angeles, located about 50 miles away.
United Airlines launched two daily round-trip flights between Palmdale and San Francisco in June 2007, but the experiment is proving to be a bust, according to Lindsey. United's contract with Palmdale is set to expire in December and airport officials are trying to keep the airline from pulling out.
Week of August 11 - August 17, 2008
Airlines to cut flights in fall - OC Register
Airlines are poised to cut more flights after Labor Day as the relatively busy summer season comes to an end.
Official Airline Guides, which tracks flights, says the total number of seats will decline 11.5 percent this fall at John Wayne Airport compared with last year. Los Angeles International will have 13 percent fewer seats, and Ontario International will see a reduction of nearly 27 percent.
Bucking the trend is Long Beach Airport, which will gain nearly 10 percent more seats after JetBlue shifts some flights there when it pulls out of Ontario on Sept. 3.
That same day, American Airlines ends the daily non-stop service [from JWA] to Austin that it inaugurated in September.
Website Editor: With that move, the number of non-stop destinations served from the Orange County airport will drop to 18. In 2005, JWA provided non-stops to 25 cities.
The falloff at John Wayne was exacerbated by a Board of Supervisors decision in January, after the airport's current downturn had begun, to both deny a request from Southwest Airlines to increase its JWA service and to reduce by over 300,000 the number of seats that all air carriers are allowed to fly.
JetBlue adding S.F. flights - Press-Telegram
JetBlue Airways is adding daily nonstop flights between Long Beach and San Francisco, the airline announced Thursday.
Its first two daily flights will begin Oct. 18, and a third will be added Nov.2 between San Francisco International Airport and Long Beach Airport.
One-way fares will begin at $49.
Website Editor: Travelocity lists October OW fares to SFO from LAX starting at $56 on Virgin and $66 on American, plus tax. Burbank fares start at $91.50 plus tax. Non-stop fares from Palmdale, Ontario and Orange County start at around $460. How's that for a rip off?
JetBlue controls 28 of the airport's 41 commercial flight slots. The airline also will be adding two flights from Long Beach to Portland, Ore., on Oct. 9. In May, JetBlue added Long Beach flights to San Jose, Seattle and Austin. The airline also has regular flights to Oakland, so the new flights to San Francisco will be the third Bay Area destination from Long Beach.
Bumpy ride for airlines - Daily Breeze editorial
This fall's expected service cuts by overseas airlines at Los Angeles International Airport continue an unsettling trend that will likely weigh heavily on the regional economy.
A Daily Breeze story this week noted that international air carriers are planning to cut 213 weekly takeoffs and landings at the airport by November, a reduction of 11 percent over air traffic at the same time last year. Among the airlines cutting overseas routes are Air India and Cathay Pacific Airways.
Cuts in international flights come on the heels of last month's news reports that airlines are planning steep cuts in domestic flights in and out of LAX. Overall, LAX travelers can expect a 12 percent drop in all available seats by late fall.
JWA has ninth consecutive down month in July
Airline passenger traffic at John Wayne Airport decreased in July 2008 as compared to July 2007. In July 2008, the Airport served 823,922 passengers, a decrease of 9.8% when compared to the July 2007 passenger traffic count of 913,172.
Airport passengers are down by 8.5% for the calendar year to date.
A USA Today study projects JWA to experience a 14.5% drop in scheduled service this fall.
Commercial Carrier flight operations decreased 7.7%, while Commuter Carrier (air taxi) operations decreased 30% when compared to the same levels recorded in July 2007.
Total aircraft operations decreased in July 2008 as compared to the same month in 2007. In July 2008, there were 21,894 total aircraft operations (take-offs and landings), a decrease of 23.2% when compared to 28,516 total aircraft operations in July 2007.
General aviation activity, which accounted for 63% of the total aircraft operations during July, decreased 29% when compared to July 2007.
State Senate backs jet ban at Santa Monica Airport - LA Times
State legislators on Monday approved an advisory resolution encouraging the Federal Aviation Administration to honor Santa Monica's ban on the fastest jets that use the city's airport.
The resolution, which passed the Assembly in July and the Senate by a narrow margin Monday, also called on the FAA to review the safety of flight operations at the airport, which is within 300 feet of residential neighborhoods.
Officials to inspect new LAX customs area - Daily Breeze
Rep. Jane Harman, D-El Segundo, and Department of Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff will meet Tuesday at Los Angeles International Airport to discuss a series of security measures.
Harman and Chertoff are scheduled to tour the new U.S. Customs and Border Protection inspection area at the Tom Bradley International Terminal and examine new concrete flower planters placed in front of Terminal One as a protective barrier.
The visit comes one year after a massive computer meltdown left thousands of international passengers stranded in the customs area at LAX. Since then, airport officials have launched a $1.4 million renovation of the federal inspection area.
Clarifying the Long Beach Airport picture
Last week, the Long Beach Press Telegram, the Red Orbit blog (see report below) and other sources reported that Long Beach Airport "flies high despite [the economic] turndown. The report was based on a continuing study by USA Today of projected airline seats that will be offered according to schedules published by the Official Airline Guide.
USA Today looked at seats on domestic departures only, disadvantaging international airports like LAX. The USA data says nothing about whether the seats will be flown once cancellations are made, and how many will be filled by paying passengers. It compared only the month of November 2008 to November 2007 per the August 4 edition of the OAG.
November 2007 was Long Beach Airport's second worst November since 2002. An uptick over that month hardly qualifies as "flying high".
Our website reported actual passengers, enplaned and deplaned for the six months ending June 2008 versus the same period in 2007. Actual travel at LGB was down 3.7 percent. Looking forward with projections has value but one needs to be careful when drawing conclusions from limited statistics.
Week of August 4 - August 10, 2008
Long Beach Airport Flies High Despite Downturn - Red Orbit
While airports around the nation are losing seats in the midst of a troubled economy and rising fuel prices, Long Beach Airport actually is gaining seats. Over the past year, the airport was the only one in California that actually gained seats, according to recent findings by USA Today.
The publication released a study on seats filled on departures that used information from the Official Airline Guide. Throughout the nation, airports had 10 percent fewer seats filled, comparing what is expected this upcoming November with November 2007.
In California, every airport lost seats except Long Beach, which fills an average of 5,209 seats daily. That's an increase of 9.2 percent. Website Editor: Not quite so according to our data for the first half of the year.
The reason is relatively simple. For the first time since the early '90 s, the airport has all 41 of its commercial slots filled and running. JetBlue and Alaska Airlines had been holding slots and not flying out of them, but JetBlue is flying out of all of its slots and is borrowing Alaska's slots.
Airport sputters, but will grow again - Inland Valley Daily Bulletin editorial
Los Angeles World Airports remains committed to pushing flights from LAX to L.A./Ontario International Airport and its other outlying airports in Southern California. That's good. Unfortunately, it's going to be difficult to do for a while, and it's impossible to say how long.
The nation's economic downturn, and especially the sky-high price of oil - and hence, jet fuel - is hitting ONT harder than just about any other midsize or larger airport in the country. ONT will have lost about a third of its flights by November, after ExpressJet and JetBlue pull out. LAWA figures presented Wednesday to a committee of the L.A. City Council, which oversees LAWA, show a 28 percent drop in weekly seat capacity at ONT by the end of this calendar year.
It's bleak for ONT right now after years of growth. The airport handled 7.2 million passengers in 2007, and has plans to start building a third terminal once it gets to 10 million in a year. But right now, there's even some buzz that, if flights keep disappearing, one of the two terminals that opened in 1998 could be closed to save money.
We're confident that things will turn around - just as the national economy will - and the airport will begin to grow again, eventually blooming into the true powerhouse regional leaders expect it to become. It's a bit harder now to predict when that might be.
We Inland Valley residents should keep ONT our airport of choice - remembering that saving the time, hassle and gas money that a trip to LAX entails more than compensates, usually, for a cheaper flight out of the bigger airport.
Website Editor: Meanwhile, in Orange County, the cities of Newport Beach and Costa Mesa are wrapping up a $200,000 OCTA funded study of how to get people to leave John Wayne Airport alone and use Ontario International. It may be a hard sell.
It's even harder to see how Palmdale Airport can survive once its government subsidies to United Airlines run out.
Rosendahl pushes for LAX upgrade despite cuts - Daily Breeze
City Councilman Bill Rosendahl said Thursday that he supports efforts to move ahead with a $10 billion plan to upgrade the aging airport over the next decade.
"LAX really is an international gateway, but it doesn't have to look like a Third World shambles of an old airport," Rosendahl told about 50 people gathered for a luncheon hosted by the Los Angeles Current Affairs Forum.
Rosendahl stuck with his mantra that "modernization is the key to regionalism," and said the city will be able to charge higher rents and landing fees to airlines after LAX gets a face-lift. The increased charges at LAX, he believes, will prompt air carriers to shift flights to LA/Ontario International Airport.
"We know the market is there in the Inland Empire," Rosendahl said. "The market will become real in a regional setting after we modernize LAX and pass the cost on to the airlines."
Airport looks to recoup its losses - Daily Breeze
Airport officials will consider charging for free services, cutting administrative costs and other measures to balance the books at Los Angeles International, which is projected to see a 17 percent reduction in flights this fall.
Several airport jobs remain unfilled as officials seek out cost-saving ideas to keep LAX operating and pay for an overhaul of aging facilities expected to cost up to $10 billion over the next decade, according to Gina Marie Lindsey, the airport's executive director.
"It means belt-tightening for LAX and Ontario airport, but we're not backing away from the capital improvements that are necessary at the airport," Lindsey told the Los Angeles City Council's Trade, Commerce and Tourism Committee on Wednesday.
Rising fuel costs have prompted the airlines to use smaller jets, cut routes and increase ticket prices, leading to a reduction of nearly 2,000 weekly takeoffs and landings at LAX by November.
While the airlines are expected to make deeper service cuts by winter, there is a slight chance of a recovery with the recent drop in fuel costs, according to Mark Thorpe, director of air service marketing at LAX. "No one knows if this is going to be a permanent shift in demand but keeping costs down is key," Thorpe said.
The LA Times reports, airport officials assured Los Angeles City Council members Wednesday that a multibillion-dollar plan to modernize Los Angeles International Airport will proceed, at least for the short term.
Region sees 1-1/4 million fewer air passengers in first six months of 2008
Each of the 6 major Southern California Association of Governments (SCAG) region airports posted lower air traffic for the first six months of 2008 when compared to the same period last year. The airports lost 1-1/4 million passengers or 2.8 percent of last year's traffic.
Overall, the airports served 42,838,886 passengers in the first half of 2008, 44,089,834 in 2007, and fell back below their pre-9-11 level of 42,246,934.
International travel from LAX was the only bright light in the data showing a year-to-year gain.
♠
Palmdale served 11,698 passengers not counted in the comparison. The airport did not operate the the first part of last year.
| Passengers |
SNA | LGB | ONT | PSP | BUR | LAX Dom | LAX Intl | LAX total | Region |
| 6 Mos 2007 | 4,987,019 | 1,433,582 | 3,471,824 | 971,183 | 2,859,306 | 22,062,125 | 8,303,545 | 30,365,670 | 44,089,834 |
| 6 Mos 2008 | 4,573,363 | 1,381,247 | 3,366,132 | 951,769 | 2,779,091 | 21,729,904 | 8,503,695 | 30,233,599 | 42,838,886 |
| Change | -413,656 | -52,335 | -105,692 | -19,414 | -80,215 | -332,221 | 200,150 | -132,071 | -1,250,948 |
San Diego's Lindbergh Field, which is not part of the SCAG planning region, showed the best performance in Southern California. The airport was 5.1 percent ahead of the same six month period last year, serving an additional 447,208 passengers.
Ontario airport hit hard by industry downturn, high fuel costs - LA Times
Not long ago LA/Ontario International Airport was setting growth records. Airlines flocked to the Inland Empire airfield in what Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa hailed as the "great first steps" to regionalizing air travel in Southern California.
In a much publicized event last year, the mayor even helped welcome the start of an airline's service at Ontario by donning a safety vest and directing an ExpressJet plane to its gate.
Come September, ExpressJet will no longer operate at Ontario, becoming one of the latest casualties of high fuel costs and a souring economy, which have grounded airline service across the country. Other domestic airlines, such as United, Delta, Southwest and JetBlue Airways, have slashed or eliminated service at Ontario as well.
As a result, no airport in Southern California has been hit as hard by the aviation fuel crisis and downturn as Ontario. It is bracing for a 34% drop in flights from last fall's numbers, irking travelers and frustrating promises by politicians to shift some service away from congested Los Angeles International Airport.
Long Beach off as JetBlue sildes
Long Beach airport saw 3.7 percent fewer passengers in the first half of 2008 when compared to 2007.
The airport's principal carrier, JetBlue Airways suffered an 8.9 percent decline for the period.
You can get there if you have the bucks
New on-demand flight service will be available from John Wayne Airport providing direct access to popular spots not served by the airport's approved commercial airlines.
Street Insider reports: Scheduled for takeoff in Summer 2009, Safari Air's Gulfstream IV aircraft will offer on-demand service from Orange County, John Wayne Airport to Honolulu, New York City, Puerto Vallarta and Cabos San Lucas, Mexico. Safari Air clients will access premium private travel using a pay per seat model, an innovative and affordable alternative to the prohibitive cost of fractional jet ownership or private jet membership programs.
Airbus A380 at LAX today [Tuesday] - Daily Breeze
The Airbus A380 is scheduled to make its third visit to Los Angeles International Airport today so that Emirates Airlines officials can conduct a series of ground and flight tests.
The visit comes after Emirates launched commercial service on Friday aboard the Airbus A380 between Dubai and New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport, making it the first carrier to use the massive jet for passenger flights in the United States. A similar test flight was held Monday at San Francisco International Airport.
Emirates will launch service between LAX and Dubai beginning Oct. 1, using the Boeing 777-200 LR aircraft, but officials said they hope to eventually switch to the Airbus A380 for the 8,339-mile flight, which lasts about 17 hours.
In the meantime, Qantas Airlines will be the first airline to launch regular flights aboard the Airbus A380 out of LAX beginning Oct. 20.
Airport officials are planning to build six new gates capable of accommodating the Airbus A380 on the back of the Tom Bradley International Terminal by 2010 at a cost of more than $1.5 billion.
JetBlue Airways to charge $7 for pillow, blanket - USA Today
JetBlue Airways said Monday it will begin charging customers for pillows and blankets.
The carrier has done away with the recycled blankets and pillows used on its flights, and will begin offering an "eco-friendly" travel blanket and pillow that can be purchased for $7 on flights longer than two hours. The pair will come in a kit with a $5 coupon to home furnishings retailer Bed Bath & Beyond.
Website Editor: Might I suggest bringing your own Eagle Creek inflatable neck pillow (from Amazon for about $15) and covering yourself with all those clothes that otherwise might require a second checked bag.
Burbank air traffic drops in June
Bob Hope airport served 9.5% fewer passengers in June than in the same month last year. The drop was heavily weighted by an 8.5% decline at Southwest Air. SWA handles almost 2/3 of all passengers at the airport.
Year to date, BUR traffic was off by 2.8%.
Week of July 28 - August 3, 2008
LAX to test new scanners for shoes - Daily Breeze
Performing a barefoot strip tease at security checkpoints may become a thing of the past as federal authorities prepare for summertime tests at Los Angeles International Airport on a pair of new machines that scan shoes for explosives.
The PassPort scanners, manufactured by government contractor L-3 Communications, will determine whether travelers are hiding bombs in their footwear.
LAX terminal evacuated - Daily Breeze
One of the busiest terminals at LAX was briefly evacuated Saturday after an X-ray machine showed one bag had a "dense mass with wires attached to it" that turned out to be a book and computer cables, a police sergeant said.
The Los Angeles Police Department Bomb's squad said the suspicious item was found by federal Transportation Safety Administration inspectors, prompting a partial evacuation at Terminal One.
Air Canada Leaps Noise Hurdle At John Wayne - Aviation Week
Air Canada has successfully completed arduous noise qualification tests with an Airbus A319 in Orange County, Calif., at John Wayne Airport as the first step toward becoming the U.S. airport's first international operator.
The trials, completed on July 22, included five departures with the aircraft ballasted with newspapers to simulate full passenger loads. Air Canada, which has been on a waiting list of airlines wishing to operate from JWA since 2001, is believed to be interested in establishing flights to and from Vancouver and at least one other Canadian city.
"The airline is also working with U.S. customs and border patrol, and that needs to be worked through as we've never had direct international services from here before," says an airport official. "It sounds like there's some feasibility of something working out, and we think we could see services as early as the end of this year."
JWA, which serves almost 10 million passengers annually, is in the rare position of actively soliciting for business following the collapse of Aloha Airlines earlier this year, and the reduction in services by American and Alaska in the wake of recent fuel price increases. Some additional slots have been taken up by Southwest Airlines but further services from new carriers are sought. "It's really important for us to have a diverse mix of carriers here," adds the official.
JWA is "reaching out" to Virgin America, the California-based, low-cost member of the Virgin Group, and remains in active talks with others on the waiting list including Canadian carrier WestJet. Talks have meanwhile slowed with two others--AirTran and Hawaiian--after both airlines declared they are not yet interested in starting services
Website Editor: Air Canada, and passengers who would have used the Canadian route, have been on hold for 7-1/2 years. Air Canada joined the waiting list on January 12, 2001 but was held off even though the airport consistently operated substantially below the MAP cap negotiated with Newport Beach.
American Trans Air (ATA) joined the John Wayne waiting list on January 19, 2001 and successfully completed the noise test with a 757-200. At the time, ATA flew from Los Angeles to Hawaii and to the midwest. ATA filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on April 2, 2008 and discontinued operations the following day. Similarly named Air Tran Airways joined the wait list on July 29, 2003 and provides budget service to the midwest with connections to the east coast.
Landing some big bucks - OC Register letters
Website Editor Len Kranser continues to call it what it is with the following letter.
The Register reports that higher fees would help “fund expansion of the aviation hub” The Register, and nearly everyone else, calls the $570 million John Wayne Airport project an “expansion.” (See report below) However, county officials never use the “expansion” word, referring to the new third terminal and thousands of additional parking spaces as an “improvement.”
The official avoidance of the “expansion” word is an exercise in political correctness. The county approved the costly building project without any plans for using the new terminal to expand the number of flights or passengers served, beyond the limits for 2011-15 negotiated with Newport Beach more than five years ago. Any increase in air travel use after that will require a time-consuming environmental impact study.
No private business would undertake a major expansion without more economic justification. However, the county has the luxury of being able to pass the cost along to passengers through higher parking fees and a $4.50 per-ticket facilities tax.
John Wayne Airport parking rates to rise - OC Register
Fees rise for first time in years to support expansion project.
The first John Wayne Airport parking-rate increase in years won narrow county supervisor approval Tuesday, part of an effort to fund expansion of the aviation hub.
The increase was approved 3-2 with Supervisors Pat Bates and Janet Nguyen dissenting without explanation.
Website Editor: Airport management steadfastly refuses to call the expansion an "expansion" but rather an "improvement". There are no plans to lift the limits on air travel at John Wayne after the project is complete. The 10.8 MAP cap set in 2003 for 2011-15 will stay in force indefinitely unless changed by a new environmental impact report.
Atlanta tops list of the world's busiest airports - USA Today
[LAX is fifth]
Nearly 4.8 billion passengers took to the air last year, with Atlanta's Hartsfield International atop the list of the world's busiest terminals, followed by Chicago's O'Hare and London's Heathrow.
That figure was 6.8% higher than the previous year, according to Airports Council International, an industry association that issued the annual report Tuesday.
But Council Director-General Angela Gittens cautioned that traffic growth has been slowing during the first months of this year, running only about 3% higher than in 2007.
Atlanta, the world's busiest airport, remained well ahead with 89.4 million passenger arrivals and departures last year, a 5.3% increase over 2006.
O'Hare came in second with 76 million passengers and Heathrow was in third with 68 million.
Rounding out the top 10 were Tokyo Haneda, 67 million; Los Angeles, 62 million; Paris' Charles De Gaulle, 59.9 million; Dallas-Fort Worth, 59.7 million; Frankfurt, Germany, 54.2 million; Beijing, 53.6 million; and Madrid, Spain, 52.1 million.
LAX traffic shows small slide in June
In June, the total number of passengers using LAX declined by 1.54 percent when compared to the same month last year. International travel decreased by 0.77 percent and domestic traffic was off by 1.82 percent.
Overall, the airport has lost 0.58 percent of its volume for the first six months of the year.
LA/Ontario Airport saw an 11.33 percent drop in the month and is off by 3.04 percent for the year-to-date.
As previously reported, Orange County's John Wayne Airport experienced an 11.4 percent drop in June and is down 8.3 percent for the year.
The trend is consistent with national moves by airlines, cutting service to smaller airports while trying to maintain operations at major hubs. It does not bode well for advocates of regionalizing Southern California air service who seek to disperse travel away from Los Angeles to numerous smaller airports.
JWA traffic slows in 2008 - Daily Pilot
Traffic at John Wayne Airport has dropped significantly over the last six months, but Newport Beach’s airport consultant Richard Cox told city officials Monday that they shouldn’t let their guard down.
Airport officials, city analysts and policy makers all agree the drop in passengers will not last forever, though.
One of the highlights of Cox’s presentation to the committee was a Federal Aviation Administration study, called FACT 2, which lists John Wayne as an airport that could accommodate more passengers in 2015. However, the study is based on demand for flights and because that demand is decreasing, the FAA’s requests might be less pressing, Cox said.
“Newport Beach has the current settlement agreement, and as long as that’s in effect then they’re in very good shape,” Cox said.
Even if the FAA says John Wayne should increase flights, the final decision to add infrastructure or change the cap on passengers is in the hands of the airport, Wedge said. The national body cannot force John Wayne to increase its offerings.
John Wayne has no plans to increase passenger traffic and would refuse any FAA suggestion to extend the runway or add a second, according to Wedge.
Website Editor: These decisions theoretically are in the hands of the Board of Supervisors, negotiating agreements on behalf of the county with Newport Beach. However, the airport manager frequently recommends actions to the supervisors that result in lower levels of service than allowed by the agreements.
Landing costs at LAX on the rise - Daily Breeze
Cash-strapped airlines will be forced to pay 15 percent more to land at Los Angeles International Airport under a plan adopted Monday by airport officials to offset lost revenues from flight cutbacks.
In total, LAX is expected to rake in $185 million worth of landing fees to cover airport operations this year.
"Adjusting the landing fee is something we do a couple of times a year, so this is a routine deal for us," said Gina Marie Lindsey, executive director of Los Angeles World Airports, the agency that operates LAX.
The airport commission also agreed to increase landing fees at LA/Ontario International Airport from $2.43 per 1,000 pounds to $2.70. Even though landing fees are lower at Ontario airport than at LAX, airlines pay higher rental fees for terminals, making it more expensive to do business at the San Bernardino County airport.
"That doesn't help our cause for regionalism and getting flights to other airports in the region," said Airport Commissioner Valeria Velasco.
