Ontario adds Riverside, OC to authority mix - Press Enterprise
The city of Ontario plans to choose Riverside Mayor Ron Loveridge and the head of the Orange County Business Council to fill out the rest of its recently formed five-member Ontario International Airport Authority, according to a statement sent from the city.
It’s the latest step in the city’s effort to gain control of the Inland airport from the city of Los Angeles, which has managed it since 1967 and owned it since 1985. The authority board wouldn’t have any oversight over Ontario airport unless the city of Los Angeles cedes control.
The board is made up of two members of the Ontario City Council, the San Bernardino County supervisor whose district includes the airport — and, still to be appointed, two prominent people selected by the Ontario City Council from the region that makes up the airport’s customer base.
During its regular meeting on Tuesday, Sept. 4, the council is expected to fill those two open seats with Loveridge and Lucy Dunn, president and CEO of the Orange County Business Council.
Dunn, who serves on the California Transportation Commission, described Ontario airport as a major asset.
While she said she has a strong bias for John Wayne Airport in Santa Ana, she said the Orange County airport and Ontario complement each other and serve different markets. She said the authority would benefit both.
A thriving airport has been vital to Orange County, Dunn said. “It is a critical infrastructure asset to Orange County’s economy and probably one of the reasons why we have one of the lowest unemployment rates in the state,” she said.
As an airline passenger, she said, Ontario is her second choice behind John Wayne. “Please don’t make me drive to LA,” she said.
JWA posts July stats
Airline passenger traffic at John Wayne Airport increased in July 2012 as compared to July 2011. In July 2012, the Airport served 816,536 passengers, an increase of 4.0% when compared to the July 2011 passenger traffic count of 784,927.
Commercial aircraft operations increased 3.6%, while Commuter aircraft operations decreased 6.1% when compared to the levels recorded in July 2011.
Expansion Plans for LAX, Called Sorely Needed, Come Under Fire from Neighbors - KNBC-TV
Local residents sounded off on LAX's long term expansion plans at a public meeting at a restaurant near the airport Saturday.
The event at the Proud Bird was a chance for the public to comment on a long-awaited evaluation of alternatives to improve Los Angeles International
Airport. Possibilities include demolishing and replacing three terminals, moving runways and connecting LAX to the county's light-rail system.
The changes would be the first major improvements for the aging airport since 1984.
Six years in the making, the draft document under review Saturday - available at www.laxspas.org - details nine different plans meant to increase safety, efficiency and capacity at LAX, which is now the world's sixth-busiest airport.
New airline plans O.C.-Mexico flights - OC Register
An aggressively expanding low-cost Mexican airline has received permission from the U.S. government to fly from Orange County to three destinations in Mexico. Interjet originally hoped to begin flying Sept. 14, but has pushed plans back to October, according to John Wayne Airport officials.
The city is the third Mexican destination that would be served by airlines flying from Orange County.
The budget Mexican carrier plans to fly from John Wayne Airport to Guadalajara, a new destination for Orange County travelers. It also has permission to fly to Mexico City and Cabo San Lucas, two destinations that are already served by Air Tran, a wholly owned subsidiary of Southwest Airlines.
August 6 - August 12, 2012
Regional air travel up 3 percent in first half
The number of passengers flying in and out of regional airports was up by 3.0 percent for the first half of 2012 compared to the same six months of 2011. The winners and losers were as follows:
| Airport |
Percent change |
| Los
Angeles International |
+3.6 |
| John
Wayne |
+0.8 |
| Bob
Hope |
-4.6 |
| Ontario |
-6.3 |
| Long
Beach |
+11.6 |
| Palm
Springs |
+17.8 |
| Total |
+3.0 |
Passenger, revenue figures continue to slide at Burbank Bob Hope Airport - Burbank Leader
Passenger traffic and parking revenues at Burbank Bob Hope Airport in June each tumbled by more than 7% compared to the same period last year, according to figures released this week, even as other regional airfields experienced growth.
In June 2012, 342,944 passengers traveled through Bob Hope, a nearly 7.8% slide from 371,931 passengers in June 2011, according to a report to the Burbank-Glendale-Pasadena Airport Authority on Monday.
“June was disappointing for us, unfortunately,” said Dan Feger, the airport’s executive director.
In the past few months, airport officials had said the passenger numbers, while down, were showing a glimmer of recovery, but Feger said they’re not sure if the trend is continuing.
July 30 - August 5, 2012
Mexico flights pump up John Wayne Airport's June growth - OC Register
John Wayne Airport saw year-over-year June passenger traffic increase for the first time in five years, with the total number of travelers jumping 4.7%.
Jenny Wedge, airport spokeswoman, said much of the increase can be attributed to AirTran, which initiated JWA's first service to Mexico June 3. It includes for the first time customs clearance for passengers in Orange County.
About 16,400 passengers of the additional passengers in June were on AirTran's daily flights to Mexico City and Cabo San Lucas as well as on the airline's new service between JWA and Las Vegas and San Francisco.
While AirTran gave JWA a boost, more than half of the increase in June passenger traffic was just more people flying to the destinations the airport already served, Wedge said.
JWA hasn't had June-to-June growth in passenger travel since 2007, when it increased 6.3%.
John Wayne traffic increased in June
Airline
passenger traffic at John Wayne Airport increased in June 2012 as
compared to
June 2011. In June 2012, the Airport served 784,849 passengers, an
increase of
4.7% when compared to the June 2011 passenger traffic count of 749,815.
ONT traffic drops again; decline expected to continue for rest of 2012 - Inland Valley Daily Bulletin
Passenger traffic at LA/Ontario International Airport continued its downward trend in June, falling 4.3 percent compared to the same month in 2011.
Overall, numbers of passengers flying in and out of ONT have dropped 6.3 percent for the first six months of 2012 compared to the previous year, according to figures released Monday by Los Angeles World Airports.
A look at the schedules of flights released by airlines indicate things will not turn around anytime soon.
For the remainder of year, airlines plan to operate 9.6 percent fewer flights compared to the same months in 2011.
With the current downward trend, Ontario officials say they expect passenger traffic for the year to reach 4.2 million, a figure lower than any seen since 1983. Decline at the airport began after 2007, when travel peaked at 7.2 million annual passenger traffic.
Passenger
traffic at Los Angeles International Airport
slightly increased in June as compared to the same month in 2011.
Traffic was
up 1.96 percent in June and remains 3.58 percent ahead of last year for
the
first half of the year.
9 proposals offered to increase safety, efficiency at LAX's north airfield - Daily Breeze
Nine proposals aimed at increasing safety and efficiency on Los Angeles International Airport's north airfield were released Friday, including an option that calls for shifting the northernmost runway 350 feet toward the communities of Westchester and Playa del Rey.
LAX officials have not yet signaled which reconfiguration they prefer, but one of the options will be selected when the final environmental impact report is released next year, airport officials said.
In each case, airport officials said they expect LAX's traffic to reach 78.9 million travelers by 2025.
A change in operations is required when supersized jetliners - such as the Airbus A380 - come in for a landing on LAX's northern runways, which are separated by 700 feet.
The Federal Aviation Administration has long stated that the runways need more separation and the addition of a centerline taxiway to reduce the risk of collisions between arriving and departing aircraft.
Earlier this week, an alliance of business and labor leaders dubbed Coalition to Fix LAX preliminarily threw their support behind the airport's plan to separate the northern runways.
However, those living immediately north of LAX have raised concerns that homes and the nearby Westchester business district would be impacted - and potentially wiped out - if the runways are shifted toward their community.
