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Aviation History
1989
1989 - 0089.PDF
Pacific Southwest aircraft wait at the ramps of Orange County Airport, Los Angeles, the subject of a $300 rMllion expansion additional runways. Some breathing space is allowed by the four major regional airports located within the SCAG area, which includes the counties of Los Angeles, Ventua, Riverside, San Bernadino, Imperial, and Orange. These airports are Ontario, Orange County (John Wayne), Burbank, and Long Beach. Between 1981 and 1986, LAX's share of the total passenger volume fell from 84 per cent to just under 77 per cent. Most of the extra work moved to Ontario, which is also owned and operated by the City of Los Angeles. The region's second-busiest airport, Ontario is located approximately 50 miles east of LAX, near San Bernadino. Cliff Moore, executive director of the Los Angeles Department of Airports, former president of the International Civil Airports Association and the Airports Operators Council International, and current chief executive officer of the Southern California Regional Airport Authority, says: "I do not think anyone seriously questions the fact that we are heading for a capacity crunch, because of the population movement we have and the economic situation generally. We just do not have any new runways. We are trying our best to utilise what we have, but there is no question that we need additional airport capacity." Some short-term palliatives are available. For example, airlines are investigating a number of methods which will reduce run way occupancy time for individual aircraft, but Moore describes these as "Band-aids". Seeking sites The City of Los Angeles Airports Commis sion is searching for sites within the Greater LA area on which to build new airports, while simultaneously promoting the expan sion and development of the four regional airports. It has already acquired 18,000 acres of land adjacent to Air Force Plant 42 at Palmdale, north of LA, on the edge of the Mojave Desert, and the site has been approved for development as a commercial airport. "We have already invested $100 million in acquiring the land," says Moore, "and three parallel runways have been sited. We are hopeful that it will all come to pass, but what is needed is a link with San Fernando Valley, which is the biggest dormitory community in LA. That is the primary market for this airport, which is the same distance from that population centre as Dulles Airport is from downtown Washington D.C." "If the airport is built, it will probably have four runways, one of which already exists on the adjoining Air Force property. We are still negotiating with the Air Force about the use of their runway. We have a small terminal on the site, which would be useful as a starting point, and we would develop it gradually, with the first instalment probably being $100 million or so." Moore attributes the sluggish movement in the plan to the lack of pressure from airlines. He say that the airlines have not felt the pressure at LAX, so they are not pushing for this airport's construction. The military, he says, has grave doubts about allowing commercial traffic. The regional airports authority is also looking for a suitable site south of LA in Orange County, but it is hampered in its plan by opposition from the influential anti- airport lobby. These same forces have handicapped the development of Orange County's John Wayne Airport (situated 40 miles south of LAX on the borders of Santa Ana, Costa Mesa, Irvine, and Newport Beach). The airport became embroiled in a lengthy Federal court case involving the airlines and local opposition groups, before a settlement was reached in 1985. The agreement allowed the airport authority to embark on a $300 million expansion plan. The airport was first opened to commer cial services in 1968, with a terminal designed to handle just 400,000 passengers. In recent years passenger throughput has escalated dramatically, rising to 4 • 5 million during 1987—an increase which has strained the airport's infrastructure to burst ing point. John Wayne has also gained notoriety for enforcing the most stringent noise regu lations of any airport in the USA, a result of having one of the wealthiest and most vehe ment anti-airport lobbies in the country living south-west of the airport in Newport Beach, over which most flights depart. The only large jet transports allowed to operate into John Wayne are Boeing 737-300s and 757s, BAe 146s, and MDC MD-80s. A new terminal is now under construction, and is due to open in 1990. The county is also building new access ramps to the adjoin ing San Diego and Costa Mesa freeways, and new parking structures. Under the terms of the 1985 court settlement, the design limit for the new terminal is 8 • 4 million passengers per year, but SCAG predicts that the demand will exceed 10 million by the year 2000. Traffic demand at the other regional airports in the LA basin is accelerating at a similar rate. Burbank, which is the closest airport to the San Fernando Valley, and was bought from Lockheed by a consortium formed by the cities of Burbank, Glendale, and Pasadena, handles around 3-2 million passengers a year. SCAG forecasts a rise to 5 • 9 million by the year 2000, by which time he also expects Palmdale to have started operations. The smallest of the five airports, Long Beach, is owned by the City of Long Beach and handles 1 • 2 million passengers a year. SCAG sees this increasing to just over three million by 2000. Ultimately, Moore says, the answer to the airport infrastructure problem in Greater LA may be to develop an enormous rapid-transit rail system running between Palmdale and Camp Pendleton, a US Marine Corps base near San Diego which may be a suitable site for a future airport, and linking Orange County, Long Beach, LAX, Burbank, and Palmdale airports. "This system," he says, "might be used to limit airports to rail access only, and people could leave their cars at remote parking lots along the route." . Cliff Moore explains that by the year 2000 there will be eight billion people in the worli. "Some dramatic percentage of these people are going to want to fly. The problem is not just here; it is in New York, London, Frankfurt, Milan, Tokyo. We are headed for restricted markets, and that is a worrying issue." JJ FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL, 14 January 1989 31
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