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Week of December 22 - December 28, 2008
2008
– The SoCal Airport Year in Review
The El
Toro Info Site has tracked Southern California Airport developments on
a
daily
basis since 1996. Check the website’s 2007 Airport
Year in Review to see
how quickly air travel sentiment turned from bullish to skittish.
This
year, SoCal air travel slid to below pre-9-11 levels, upsetting
government
planning forecasts and raising questions about the reasonableness of
growth
assumptions.
If growth
is coming, then little was
done to increase airport capacity in the region to accommodate it. Any
airport plans and
construction in the works are officially labeled as “improvements” or
“modernization” rather
than “expansions”.
Efforts
to coordinate airport operations, in order to regionalize travel away
from LAX, backslid with the demise of the regional airport
authority, failure
of the heavily subsidized Palmdale operation and a major loss of
service at Ontario.
Here
were some of the year's top stories.
January – Southern
California
air travel set a record in 2007 but starts to taper off.
The
Southern California Regional Airport Authority gives up the ghost again
due
to pervasive unwillingness to expand airports - unless it is in someone
else's
back yard.
February – Free bus service is launched in an
attempt
to lure passengers to Palmdale.
Long Beach wins court approval to proceed with a
terminal expansion but no increase in flights.
Newport Beach groups seek to cap John Wayne Airport
forever at 10.8 million annual passengers when restrictions come up for
renegotiation in 2011.
March – Burbank
officials complete an FAA application for a curfew that would move late
night
flights to another airport; L.A. objects.
April – Santa Monica attempts to move noisy
jets elsewhere; meets
FAA resistance.
May – First quarter regional air travel
dips below
its 2007 level.
Construction
of new third terminal and parking structures at John Wayne raises local
concerns as to whether the “improvements” will
bring more
flights.
June – LAX’s south runway is relocated to
improve
safety, finally overcoming long opposition from Inglewood
neighbors.
July – Long Beach reacts to the economic
slowdown by announcing a
delay in its parking and terminal improvement project.
ExpressJet
service – heralded in 2007 as a major step towards regionalization –
will stop operating in September after less than a year of
providing
non-stop flights from Ontario and Long Beach to smaller cities.
August – San Diego
loses Zoom Airlines service to Europe
after a brief failed
attempt to reestablish overseas flights.
The
Palmdale Flyer free bus is revealed as a costly flop, carrying less
than 1
passenger per day. Free vans will replace busses.
September – Newport Beach
and Costa Mesa
city
officials join forces in attempt to block greater utilization of JWA;
study ways to move passengers elsewhere.
October – Regional air travel falls below
2001
levels. Ontario - the only
viable airport with few restrictions on its growth -
experiences
the steepest decline. Only San
Diego
air traffic does not drop.
November – State voters support high speed
rail
measure on ballot.
DHL
decides to quit March Inland Port
where it began flights in 2005. March had beat out Ontario
and San Bernardino
to land the
air cargo hub. Airport neighbors celebrate the end of night time noise.
LAX
unveils $5-7 billion “modernization” plan.
December - United become the eight airline to
abandon Palmdale
airport when multi-million dollar subsidies run out.
Audit
of Los Angeles World Airports says “agreements
with local residents limiting passenger volumes or aircraft movements”
and the
failure of any agency “to take ownership of the problem” bodes ill for L.A.’s
regionalization concept.
Feinstein urges FAA to hire more controllers at LAX -
LA Times
Reiterating her call for more air traffic controllers, Sen. Dianne
Feinstein (D-Calif.) on Monday warned President-elect Barack Obama's
nominee for Transportation secretary that chronic staff shortages at
Los Angeles International Airport and the main radar facility that
guides aircraft between airports pose an "alarming risk" to aviation
safety in Southern California.
In a two-page letter to Rep. Ray LaHood (R-Ill.), Feinstein recommended
that the Federal Aviation Administration take immediate steps to hire
more controllers at LAX and the Southern California Terminal Radar
Approach Control in San Diego.
Air travel in region is down through November
For the first 11 months of 2008, air travel at the six
airports of the SCAG region totaled approximately 4.8 percent less than
in the same period in 2007.
The 2008 volume was about 3.7 percent less than in 2000, its highest
point prior to the terrorist attacks of 2001.
How CEO kept Virgin America aloft in tough year - San
Francisco Chronicle
The rise in fuel prices, said Virgin America
CEO David Cush, was more significant economically for the industry than
the aftermath of the 2001 terrorist attacks, which chilled flying for a
time.
Eight U.S. airlines failed in 2008, about 36,000 industry jobs will be
lost by year's end and many airports across the country have lost
commercial service as airlines contracted because of high fuel prices.
And we're not out of the bog yet.
Cush has a two-pronged strategy to survive and, he hopes, thrive. Part
one is to keep workers focused on the goal of providing a superior
product at a good price. Part two is to pull back on ambitious growth
plans that dated to a more bullish time.
Part [of his plan] was not to order as many airplanes as the company
anticipated it would need when growth plans were written several years
ago.
Virgin America's original plan was to rather quickly get up to as many
destinations as possible, perhaps with an eventual ceiling of 30
cities. That target is still moving. Cush thinks the company is sized
for 30 cities, although the number may eventually be less. "The
acceptance we have in the urban areas is very strong, and we don't want
to outgrow our model."
While growth has slowed, Virgin America is not stopped in its tracks.
There were 17 airplanes in the fleet in May. There are 24 now and there
will be 28 in February. Boston will be the carrier's eighth destination
in what is largely a coast-to-coast route strategy for the airline. The
other cities served are Las Vegas, New York, San Diego, Seattle and
Washington.
Dip in LAX flights was no shock - Daily Breeze
Los Angeles
International Airport saw a 14 percent drop in airline passengers in
November, marking the largest decline in travelers in a single month
this year, according to figures released Tuesday.
The airport also
handled 25 percent fewer air cargo shipments last month compared to the
same period in 2007, reflecting the fact that consumers are purchasing
fewer imports.
Airport
officials said they are "not surprised" by the double-digit declines at
LAX because the national recession has forced air carriers to cut
flights, while travelers are opting to save their money rather than
take to the skies.
Disturbing to
local officials is the fact that only 1.16 million international
travelers passed through LAX last month, a 13 percent decline from
November 2007. Overseas flights generate more income for the local economy, and the
losses only further hurt the region, said Jack Kyser, chief economist
for the Los Angeles Economic Development Corp.
Ontario sees large drop in November
Passenger traffic at LA/Ontario airport dropped 30.6 percent in
November compared to November 2007.
The airport served 414,832 travelers in the month.
Year to date traffic is off by 12.3 percent.
Week of December 15 - December 21, 2008
Fewer people may be heading out of town for the winter break -
OC
Register
Despite drastically lower gas prices, Christmas travel will be down
this year. About 5.3 million Southern Californians will travel at least
50 miles, according to the Automobile Club of Southern California, a
drop of 1.9 percent.
The biggest
difference will be at the airport, where 642,500 of our neighbors will
take a flight – down 6.7 percent from last year. Part of the drop is
because about 10 percent fewer seats are available than last year due
to airline service cutbacks.
Holiday
air travel out of John Wayne Airport is expected to drop about 10
percent this season compared to 2007. Last year, 207,902 people flew
out of JWA during Christmas week.
October passenger totals tallied
Data
collected from Los Angeles International, John Wayne, LA/Ontario, Bob
Hope,
Long
Beach and Palm Springs airports (the Southern California Association of
Governments planning region) shows a collective drop
of 3.9 percent for the first ten months of this year when compared
with 2007.
San Diego International Airport, which is not part of the SCAG region,
posted a 1.1 increase in passenger traffic for the same period.
Airport
|
Passengers
through October 2008
|
Passengers
through October 2007
|
Percent
change
|
LAX
|
50,881,353
|
51,928,341
|
-2.0
|
SNA
|
7,650,528
|
8,463,106
|
-9.6
|
ONT
|
5,395,439
|
6,027,737
|
-10.5
|
BUR
|
4,559,850
|
4,958,910
|
-8.0
|
LGB
|
5,439,900
|
2,458,357
|
-0.8
|
PSP
|
1,271,523
|
1,305,035
|
-2.6
|
Total
|
72,197,521
|
75,148,903
|
-3.9
|
Note: Percentage
changes above may differ slightly from those recorded on individual
airport websites because some airports amended their 2007 data after
the initially posting
.
Is
Virgin coming to Orange
County and if so, when? -
El Toro Info Site
We hope that Virgin America is coming to Orange County's John Wayne
Airport this spring as reported in the press but
there are mixed signals about the timing.
Whereas Air Canada applied for and passed the airport's noise
tests
nearly five months ago, prior to being added to the list of new
carriers for 2009-10, Virgin
America has yet to schedule the required flight tests. The noise
qualification and the finalizing of a lease agreement are being held up
awaiting Board of Supervisors action which usually consists of
approving airport management's recommendations.
Virgin asked to be inserted into the
airport's draft plan for 2009-10 where numbers suggest it will
operate five round trips for most of the year. If it does not do so,
the hole left in the schedule when Aloha ceased flying will go largely
unfilled.
A
December 17 article in the San Francisco Business Journal offers
this contradicting information that suggests we could be waiting a
while for Virgin flights:
Known
for its new planes, jazzy interiors, hip advertising and vast
entertainment features, Virgin America said it will begin serving
Boston in early 2009, marking the last new city the low-cost airline
plans to add to its network for the coming year.
Since
it began operations 16 months ago, Virgin America has grown to serve
eight cities including Boston. But the carrier will stop adding new
destinations as it seeks to reign in expenses and gain market share.
“We’re
still the fastest growing U.S. startup airline of all time, so we’ve
tapped the breaks as we intend to grow smart in the current economic
climate,” said CEO David Cush. “We’re still growing and will ramp up
growth in 2010 and beyond again.”
Long Beach Airport sees uptick in October traffic
Passenger traffic at Long Beach in
October was up 4.3 percent over the same month in 2007.
Year-to-date, the airport served 0.8 percent fewer passengers than in
the same ten months last year. The number of commercial air carrier and
commuter flights was down by 0.5 percent and load factors remained
constant at 78 percent.
Annex back nine and keep your
word - Daily
Pilot Community Commentary
Website Editor: Where there is smoke,
there is fire. One member of the Airport Working Group writes this week
that Orange County should divide John Wayne Airport in thirds between
three bordering cities. Another, Thomas Anderson, who is also on the
Newport Beach Aviation Committee, calls on the Board of Supervisors to
annex the Newport Beach Golf Course to his city. Presumably, the idea
is to make sure that use of the land, which sits in the John Wayne
takeoff safety zone, is incompatible with expanded airport operations.
Anderson writes: John Moorlach, chairman of the Orange County Board of
Supervisors, recently announced that because Orange County is expecting
an $84-million budget gap next year, county officials may want to hand
over unincorporated areas to other municipalities. I support Moorlach’s
actions and believe for many reasons now is also the time for Moorlach
to step up to the plate on the airport issue.
I support the annexation of the unincorporated area south of Bristol
Street, which now serves as the back nine of the Newport Beach Golf
Course. The property would no longer be a drain on the county, and it
would demonstrate Moorlach’s commitment regarding further airport
expansion.
L.A.'s plans for Palmdale
airport land requested -
LA Times
City's neglect of 17,000 acres purchased over four decades is hampering
Antelope Valley, L.A. County supervisors say.
Reacting to the cancellation of passenger service this month at
Palmdale Regional Airport, the L.A. County Board of Supervisors on
Tuesday demanded that Los Angeles World Airports disclose its plans for
the 17,000 acres it purchased in the high desert city but never
developed into an international airport.
The action is the latest in an ongoing effort by Supervisor Michael D.
Antonovich to determine what county government can do to help attract
carriers to the struggling airport, where eight airlines have come and
gone since the early 1970s, including United, which ended service Dec.
7.
In the early 1970s, the [City of Los Angeles'] airport agency began
buying land in Palmdale for a giant intercontinental airport that could
handle 100 million passengers a year and accommodate SSTs, the
supersonic passenger planes that are no longer in service. The property
cost more than $100 million.
Audit finds improvements at L.A. airports -
LA
Times
A new audit of Los Angeles World Airports found that its
management and operations have improved during the past decade, but
significant challenges remain related to emergency preparedness,
spreading the future growth in air travel from busy LAX to regional
airports, and Van Nuys Airport, which has lost money for more than a
decade.
The
525-page report states that Los Angeles World Airports needs to
work with airlines and other airports to place more flights at regional
airports, such as Ontario International Airport, Bob Hope in Burbank,
Long Beach Airport, and John Wayne Airport in Orange County.
.
. . participation in joint regional planning in the greater Los
Angeles region is moribund because there ar no incentives for airports
or cities to place regional needs ahead of local community demands.
Burbank Bob Hope (BUR), Long Beach (LGB), John Wayne (SNA) and LAX have
reached agreements with local residents limiting passenger volumes or
aircraft movements. . . This situation does not nurture a
political environment that supports regionalism.
Probably
the greatest challenge is that no individual or agency has taken
ownership of the problem and its resolution. (Page I-6)
JWA
projects
lower passenger capacity for 2009-10
This
week, John
Wayne Airport
management made public its airline capacity allocations for 2009-10. A
draft of a report to the Airport Commission - on its way to the Board
of Supervisors for approval - shows fewer seats
being requested by air carriers and a significant change in airline mix.
The
report does not include the
airport manager's usual projection of how many
passengers will fly next year. The airport is allowed to serve
10,300,000
annual passengers under an agreement with Newport Beach but is likely to serve
fewer
than 9,000,000 passengers in 2009. With less seats allocated to the
airlines next year, the number of passengers could dip lower.
Airport
management is moving to restore slumping passenger
service by offering seat and departure space to airlines seeking to
expand
Orange County service.
For
the first time in several years, current air carriers
will be granted permission to fly all of the seats that they requested.
Southwest
Airlines, after repeated turndowns, will be allowed the additional
capacity
that it has long sought.
Air
Canada
and Virgin America will be allowed to move up from the airport’s
waiting list
of five potential new carriers.
The
number of seats (not passengers) to be allocated amongst
air carriers in 2009-10 totals 12,546,808. This is 326,992 fewer seats
than were handed out a year ago for 2008-09 and 636,864 fewer than
allocated two
years ago for 2007-08.
The
following table compares the seat allocations approved a
year ago with the numbers proposed at this time. It shows the
airport’s changing mix of airlines and provides clues to possible
destinations to be served. Aloha Hawaii for now.
Air carrier or group
|
2008-09 seat allocation
|
2009-10 seat allocation
|
Air Canada
|
0
|
87,600
|
Aloha
|
544,608
|
0
|
American
|
1,979,952
|
1,499,488
|
Alaska/Delta/Northwest
|
3,015,862
|
2,500,468
|
Frontier
|
397,120
|
397,120
|
Southwest
|
3,172,098
|
4,405,920
|
United
|
1,654,764
|
1,115,524
|
USAirways/Continental/Mesa
|
2,108,396
|
2,120,764
|
Virgin America
|
0
|
419,924
|
Total
|
12,872,800
|
12,546,808
|
Week of December 8 - December 14, 2008
Virgin coming to JWA? -
OCRegister.com
Virgin America has applied to fly out of John Wayne Airport with
service possibly beginning by spring.
JWA director Alan Murphy said today that the California-based affiliate
of Virgin Atlantic is considering five flights a day from Orange County
to its West Coast hub in San Francisco.
Currently, only United Airlines and American Eagle fly to San Francisco
from JWA. Website Editor: JWA travelers have had
to pay high ticket prices because of this lack of competition.
Virgin’s application to fly out of JWA is only preliminary. The
Orange County Board of Supervisors, which oversees JWA, must first
approve it. If approved, it would be up to Virgin to decide
whether to initiate service.
“At present, we have not made a decision either way about potential
service to (JWA) — including flights and destinations, but (JWA) is
certainly on the table as we explore our future expansion
opportunities,” said Abby Lunardini, Virgin America spokeswoman.
JWA may also be getting its first international service. Air
Canada also has applied to fly out of Orange County. Murphy said
the airline has indicated it might want one flight a day but he did not
know the destination in Canada.
John Reber, an Air Canada spokesman, said the airline had passed JWA’s
noise requirements for service but “no decision has yet been taken as
we haven’t finalized our flight schedule for next summer.”
To date, JWA has been unable to provide international service because
it doesn’t have customs facilities. Air Canada, however, provides
U.S. customs at its airports so passengers can be screened there. Website Editor: This leaves a question as
to why Air Canada has been kept on the waiting list for seven years.
John Wayne Airport sees continuing slide in November
- El Toro Info Site
Traffic at Orange County's John Wayne Airport dropped in November to
649,846 passengers. The number is 17.0 percent fewer than in November
2007 and
18.4 percent fewer than in November 2006 as the airport's slide
continues.
For the first 11 months of 2008, total passenger traffic fell 10.2
percent below the previous year.
2008 is shaping up as John Wayne Airport's worst year since 2003. We
project passenger volume for the calendar year to drop below 9 million
- a million fewer travelers than the airport served in 2007.
Trying to understand the JWA slump
- El Toro Info Site
JWA is likely to finish calendar year 2008 down a million passengers
from its 2007 level. This translates into several million dollars of
lost Passenger Facility Charges ($4.50 per outbound ticket), landing
fees, parking and concession revenue.
The economy has impacted all Southern California airports this year.
The six airports comprising the Southern California Association of
Governments (SCAG) region - LAX, Ontario, Burbank, Long Beach, Palm
Springs and JWA - were down by a collective 3.4 percent for the first
three quarters of the year but
JWA saw the largest year-to-year drop of 9.3 percent.
San Diego's Lindbergh Field is maintaining
its passenger volume this year as evidence that it can be done..
The bankruptcy of Aloha Airlines is a factor in JWA's slump. Aloha was
forecasted by airport management to serve just over 300,000 passengers
during the year. It operated through March and its shutdown probably
accounted for a subsequent loss of 200-250,000 passengers.
This website attributes part of JWA's million passenger decline to the Board
of Supervisors' decision to cut, by over 300,000, the number of seats
allocated to airlines this year. In addition, the Board repeatedly
rejected Southwest Airlines' proposals to add service for hundreds of
thousands of additional passengers. Had the Board granted the requests
to add flights from JWA's current airlines, the slump might have been
less severe.
In addition, several airlines offering to provide new JWA service have
been held off. Air Canada has been on the John Wayne waiting list for
seven years.
Burbank airport's
solar-powered hangar to be unveiled - LA
Times
A team of Southern California developers is taking the wraps off what
may be the world's greenest aviation facility, one capable of powering
a Boeing 757 with solar energy while the aircraft is on the ground for
maintenance.
The new 60,000-square-foot structure at Bob Hope Airport in Burbank is
believed to be the industry's only solar-powered airport hangar. Its
rooftop photovoltaic panels provide enough juice to operate the
building's lights and to recharge electric-powered ground equipment
such as forklifts and tow vehicles. The array can also keep an
airplane's electrical system humming inside the hangar while mechanics
perform their chores.
New tower on horizon for Palm
Springs airport - The Desert Sun
The air traffic control tower at Palm Springs International Airport
sits in a gulch that prevents air traffic controllers from seeing the
end of the runway, which slopes about 75 feet.
The tower was constructed in 1967 and stands six stories high.
When completed, the new tower will be about twice the height of the
original.
Local officials began pursuing a new $20 million tower in 2005. Palm
Springs International is one of about 30 new air traffic control towers
nationwide in line to be built.
3 on the ground killed in
military jet crash in San Diego - OCRegister.com
2 houses destroyed when military jet hits University City area of San
Diego.
A fighter jet returning to a Marine base after a training exercise
crashed in flames in a San Diego neighborhood Monday, killing three
people on the ground, leaving one missing and destroying two homes. The
pilot of the F/A-18D Hornet jet ejected safely just before the crash
around noon [2 miles from the] Marine Corps Air Station Miramar.
Website Editor: The incident is a
reminder of a
crash in Leisure World on the approach path to El Toro.
Note: A
fourth body was discovered after this story was published.
Study:
Extending rail to L.A./Ontario airport feasible -
Metro Magazine
A 10-month study, which
examined whether it is feasible to extend the Metro Gold Line Foothill
Extension from its planned terminus in Montclair to L.A./Ontario
International Airport, showed that extending the light rail line to the
airport is feasible and identified two preferred routes out of the 13
original route alternatives that were examined.
The Metro Gold Line Foothill Extension board of directors will host
open houses in the area to give residents a chance to learn about the
preferred routes. The board narrowed the route options from the
original 13 based on technical evaluations and extensive feedback from
the public and key stakeholders.
The study is the first step in a process required by the federal
government for eventual project funding. Now that the study is
complete, the Gold Line Foothill Extension to L.A./Ontario
International Airport is moving to the next phase, which involves more
detailed environmental and engineering review.
A recent study conducted of likely voters in the San Gabriel Valley
showed that nearly 90 percent of people residing in cities along the
Gold Line Foothill Extension corridor would take the light rail line if
it was extended to L.A./Ontario International Airport.
Bob Hope Airport passengers drop
Passenger traffic at Burbank's Bob Hope
Airport declined by 16.9 percent in October from October 2007.
For the first 10 months of calendar 2008, total traffic was off by 8.05
percent.
Week of December 1 - December 7, 2008
United Airlines taxis down runway, departs
- Antelope Valley
Press
Well, that was an interesting exercise.
Here's how it all began, as recounted on the front page of the Antelope
Valley Press on June 8, 2007:
"Perhaps
a sign of good things to come, the first United Express flight from San
Francisco arrived at the terminal about 15 minutes ahead of schedule.
"Passengers
disembarked between velvet ropes and onto a red carpet for the short
trek across the tarmac and into the terminal.
"They
were greeted by cheering crowds of well-wishers, including Los Angeles
Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa. . . Villaraigosa said it was the first time
a Los Angeles mayor visited Palmdale officially since 1971, when Mayor
Sam Yorty arrived on a similar mission.
The headlines since then have been anything but good. It didn't take
long after the politicians left that passengers began to complain about
high prices and bad connections.
Ultimately, United brought in smaller planes, and you knew it was just
a matter of time before the announcement that the airline would cease
service in Palmdale, having collected a $2 million subsidy and
remaining here not one minute longer than their agreement required.
The Palmdale airport has a long history of passenger service that
failed to live up to expectations.
Golden West Airlines and Hughes Air West began service when the
facility opened in 1971. Golden West also offered service from 1977 to
1981.
Several other airlines operated off and on from the terminal through
the decades, most recently Scenic Airlines' service to North Las Vegas
Airport from December 2004 to January 2006. No one wanted to go to
North Las Vegas Airport, they wanted to go to McCarran. So it failed.
There's an old adage in advertising that there's nothing you can do if
the dogs don't like the dog food. It applies here because as much as
people might want to make the airport viable, it's not going to be
viable unless and until it offers a viable service people really want
to use. With United's San Francisco connections, people sat down, did
the math, considered the pros and cons, and went to Burbank or Los
Angeles International Airport.
As for Mayor Villaraigosa, we haven't seen him around these parts
lately.
Palmdale's "Shortcut to the Sky"
short circuited - El Toro Info Site
Flights between LA/Palmdale and San
Francisco ended Saturday. It was another in a string of failed attempts
to promote
the north LA County facility as a poster child for airport
regionalization.
This
website's view has always been that unless a serious site search
demonstrates that Palmdale is suitably located to warrant a major
investment, the effort is merely a token political nod to advocates of
regionalization. Major airports such as Denver International (1995),
Dallas-Ft. Worth (1974) and Washington's Dulles (1962) were developed
after extensive studies. They were launched with massive
investments because they met a clear need. These airports justified
their existence by quickly providing service to millions of passengers.
In the latest failed effort, Palmdale served around 35,000 passengers
in the course of a year-and-a-half. It was a small drop in the
regionalization bucket with LAX handling that number of travelers every
few hours.
See more below and in earlier
coverage of Palmdale's demise:
Review urged on Palmdale airport
land - The
LA Daily News reports:
For more than 40 years, Los Angeles has held on to 17,000 acres of land
near Palmdale's airport, hoping it could help solve congestion problems
at Los Angeles International Airport.
And, for most of those years, other than sporadic studies, nothing has
been done with the land. The latest effort to have a passenger airline
operation at L.A./Palmdale Regional Airport will end this month when
United Airlines pulls its single daily flight.
On Wednesday, Los Angeles City Councilman Bill Rosendahl called for a
review of the city's plans for the land.
"It's time to get real," Rosendahl said during a meeting of the City
Council's Trade, Tourism and Commerce Committee. "Should we just get
out of the phoniness that we are planning something out there? We
should look at the value of the land we have there and what we could
get if we sold it."
Board gives airport last try - Daily
Breeze
"We have exhausted our possibilities, and we do not think there is a
viable, near-term business plan for Palmdale airport," said Gina Marie
Lindsey, executive director of LAWA, which also operates Los Angeles
International, LA/Ontario International and Van Nuys airports.
After only 18 months of service, United Airlines is scheduled to end
its four daily flights to San Francisco. A total of eight airlines have
attempted to launch service at Palmdale airport since 1971, only to
pull out after brief, unsuccessful runs.
As a result, Los Angeles County Supervisor Mike Antonovich and Palmdale
Mayor James Ledford have worked to wrest control of Palmdale airport
from LAWA and place it under local authority beginning later this
month.
Antonovich's office is also examining whether the county can take back
control of about 17,000 acres of land surrounding Palmdale airport. The
city of Los Angeles used eminent domain to take control of the property
about 40 years ago, promising to build a large airport.
"I don't want to say that we can't make this work," Airport
Commissioner Valeria Velasco said. "I want to hear how we can make it
work, and then make it happen."
LA's John Wayne airport readies for new flights and terminal -
Flightgobal.com
Website Editor: "LA's John
Wayne airport" ?
The United States' west coast market will likely become even more
competitive next year as California's John Wayne airport expects to add
service from up to two airlines in 2009.
Losing service from Aloha Airlines earlier this year accounts for
roughly half of the facility's expected 10% passenger drop in 2008 from
last year's record 9.98 million annual passengers, but the airline's
closure leaves room previously unavailable for additional carriers, an
airport spokeswoman says.
[The airport] has five airlines on its waiting list, with Air Canada at
the top, the spokeswoman says.
While the Canadian carrier has not identified city pairs-airlines must
obtain approval from airport owner Orange County-the earliest new
additions could inaugurate service is in April, the John Wayne
spokeswoman says.
Low-cost carriers Air Tran Airways and WestJet are next on list,
followed by rivals Virgin America and Alaska Air Group subsidiary
Horizon Air.
Why
regionalization doesn't work -
El Toro Info Site
Regionalization doesn't work the way government planners like because
airlines fly where they want to (as long as airport operators make
gates available) and at prices that they and their competitors set.
Airline prices and schedules influence passengers' choices of airports.
Before United Airlines terminates its Palmdale service this weekend, we
checked the fares for a hypothetical trip from LA/Palmdale to San
Francisco International. A round trip, going north on Thursday and
returning on Saturday, costs $926.50.
The United Airlines website showed the following fares for the same
non-stop itinerary from the other Southern California airports.
Airport
|
United
Airlines round trip non-stop fare, tax included
|
Palmdale
|
$926.50
|
Ontario
|
$931.00
|
Orange
County
|
$759.00
|
Burbank
|
$612.00
|
LAX
|
$189.00
|
San
Diego
|
$129.00
|
Other airlines may offer different
prices. The fare from Long Beach to SFO on Delta is $140.
Airport Working Group financial data
update
For many years, the Newport Beach-based
Airport Working Group was the principal activist group in the fight to
limit the growth of John Wayne airport and to build a second county
airport at El Toro. The AWG was a party to the 1985 Settlement
Agreement with the county and to the 2003 amendment that extended the
agreement beyond its originally scheduled expiration.
This website began posting the financial data for the AWG when it was
the conduit for over $3.6 million of City of Newport Beach taxpayer
money funneled into the campaign over El Toro reuse.
In the lull between airport fights, AWG income has slipped below the
level that requires the filing of a U.S. government Form 990. We still have brought
our archive of AWG financial data up to date.
We do not expect the AWG to close down, as did other groups on both
sides of the El Toro debate. The AWG is looking ahead 2-3
years when Orange County officials will consider extending the
passenger caps on John Wayne rather than allowing them to expire..
Burbank, Van Nuys airports quarrel over noisy planes -
LA Daily News
FAA may need to settle issue
A raging noise battle between Burbank's national Bob Hope Airport and
the general aviation Van Nuys Airport is getting, well, louder. And
residents at both ends of the San Fernando Valley are losing sleep over
it.
While the complex air battle has gone on for months and might
ultimately have to be decided by federal aviation officials, it
essentially boils down to this: Burbank wants to send 32 flights a day
to Van Nuys to ease congestion. Van Nuys officials don't want any of
Burbank's air traffic, but they want to divert their noisiest aircraft
to Burbank and other airports.
Passengers spend nine hours
grounded at L.A./Ontario Airport - Contra Costa News
Nearly 200 passengers on Monday spent nine hours aboard a grounded
airplane at L.A./Ontario International Airport. The Airbus A-321
aircraft with 193 passengers was diverted to the Ontario facility due
to fog.
The Taca flight from El Salvador landed in Los Angeles later Monday.
El Salvador-based Taca released a statement saying local authorities
did not give permission for passengers to go through customs and enter
the country.
However, U.S. Customs and Border Protection spokesman Mike Fleming said
the airline did not ask for permission to let the passengers disembark.
Airport cuts back as numbers dip -
Burbank
Leader
A persistent decline in the number of people willing to shell out for a
plane ticket prompted Bob Hope Airport officials Monday to cutback on
their own spending plans, deferring multimillion-dollar construction
projects in the face of falling revenue.
Just four months into a fiscal year rife with market turmoil, the
Burbank-Glendale-Pasadena Airport Authority voted unanimously Monday to
adjust its capital improvement plan budget to reflect a 16.5% drop from
last year in the number of passengers using the airport in October, a
total of 419,213 people.
For the year, airport officials reported an 8% overall decline in
passengers, a total of about 4.55 million.
San Diego is doing something right
San Diego's Lindbergh Field served
15,474,019 passengers in the first 10 months of 2008. While all other
Southern California commercial airports experienced
drops in passenger volume this year, San Diego saw 0.8 percent more
passengers through October.
While Lindbergh Field passengers and air carriers are subject to the
same fuel costs and economic problems that impact their neighbors to
the north, SD airport management aggressively seeks additional airlines
and strives to maximize passenger service to new destinations.
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