Hahn Seeks to Shift Flights to Ontario Airport

Following through on a closely watched campaign pledge, Los Angeles Mayor James K. Hahn on Monday called on the city’s new Airport Commission to lower landing and parking fees and to create a shuttle service to redirect passengers and flights from overcrowded Los Angeles International Airport to the growing airport in Ontario.

The suggestions are a good start, aviation experts said, but they added that more must be done to attract additional flights to underutilized Ontario International Airport, 35 miles from downtown Los Angeles.

“In this day and age when everyone is reducing the size of their fleet, the thing that really works is a straight-out economic guarantee,” said Jack Keady, a Playa del Rey-based aviation consultant. “Either we will pay you money to fly out of this city, or we will guarantee you a certain amount of revenue or profit.”

Hahn outlined his proposal in a letter sent to airport commissioners before their first meeting today. The Ontario facility, which served 6.7 million passengers last year, is considered the region’s best hope to help relieve overcrowding at Los Angeles International Airport.

“Ontario International Airport is uniquely positioned to provide badly needed airport capacity in Southern California,” Hahn wrote. “I’m urging you to take action on the following initiatives to attract and retain as much new air service as possible to Ontario International Airport, while relieving congestion and pressure at LAX.”

The move is a signal from Hahn that he intends to abide by a pledge he signed during the mayoral campaign not to support a major expansion plan for Los Angeles International. The mayor has repeatedly said he favors a regional approach to accommodate a projected doubling of air passengers by 2020.

In the letter, Hahn said he would be in touch with the commission with suggestions about what it could do to attract flights to Palmdale Regional Airport, a third facility run by the city’s airport agency. Palmdale currently has no commercial air service.

Among the initiatives Hahn suggests in the letter is lowering landing fees at the Ontario airport. In a controversial move, the outgoing Airport Commission voted at its last meeting in July to increase landing fees there by 59% from $1.25 to $1.99 per 1,000 pounds of “landed weight.”

The commission should also take action to lower public parking rates at Ontario, Hahn wrote. In fact, long-term parking rates at the airport are scheduled to increase on Sept. 15 from $10 to $16 per day at Lots 2 and 4. Rates at Lot 3 are to increase from $7 to $12 per day.

Airport operators said lowering landing fees and parking rates would require a balancing act to ensure such changes don’t have an adverse effect on airlines that use the facility.

“We have to balance the business aspect with the need for supporting a regional solution,” said Lydia H. Kennard, executive director of Los Angeles World Airports, the city agency that operates Ontario, LAX and Palmdale. “We are positive we can accomplish both.”

The commission should also create a FlyAway bus service from the San Fernando and San Gabriel valleys to the Ontario airport, and work to address parking shortages at the Van Nuys FlyAway, Hahn wrote.

That suggestion doesn’t go far enough, Keady said, adding that commissioners should consider a shuttle service from Orange County and one from LAX.

Commissioners should call on airlines to ensure that tickets to fly out of Ontario and LAX cost the same, Hahn suggested. Because Ontario has fewer flights than LAX, it often doesn’t have the range of pricing choices that LAX has, experts said. Residents will also be able to find more discounted seats at LAX because of greater competition there, Keady said.

Southwest Airlines, which has 63 flights a day out of Ontario, said its prices are the same at both facilities, adding that consumers often have the perception it’s cheaper to fly out of LAX because there are more airlines there.