Offer Could Delay Airport at Palmdale

The Air Force has offered to permit up to 400 commercial flights a day at the airfield it operates in Palmdale in a proposal that could help postpone Los Angeles’ planned construction of a major international airport in the Antelope Valley.

Los Angeles Department of Airports chief Clifton A. Moore indicated Thursday that no immediate effect is expected as a result of the offer, since no airline is currently expressing any interest in scheduling flights in or out of Palmdale.

While three airlines offered passenger service at the military field, known locally as Plant 42, as recently as 1978, declining demand prompted them to cease all commercial operations there by 1983.

Two Years of Negotiations

The offer is the latest move in negotiations that have been continuing for two years between the Department of Airports and the Air Force, which allowed the city to build the civilian Palmdale Air Terminal back in 1971 on 65 acres it leases at Plant 42.

Moore said Thursday that the Air Force is offering the use of its facility because it opposes construction of the huge international Palmdale Regional Airport planned by the department.

Air Force spokesmen have expressed concern that development of a major civilian airport on a 36-square mile tract that the department purchased in the Antelope Valley in the 1960s would disrupt flights from nearby Plant 42 and Edwards Air Force Base and intrude on the vast stretches of restricted military airspace in the area.

Preliminary Stages

Moore stressed Thursday that consideration of the Air Force proposal is still in the preliminary stages, and he said it will take some time before any final agreement is worked out.

He said that as currently envisioned such an agreement would include postponing development of Palmdale Regional Airport as long as demands for commercial traffic in the area were being met at the Palmdale Air Terminal. The 400 flights offered are about three times the commercial traffic currently using Burbank Airport.

Moore said that--assuming the agreement is signed and some commercial carriers show interest--the Palmdale Air Terminal probably would be used initially for commuter hops and for stops for flights between the Los Angeles area and the San Joaquin Valley.

Industry spokesmen say it probably would be a number of years before the expanding population of the valley reaches proportions that would warrant using the facility as a terminus for the sort of interstate flights currently operating out of Burbank, Long Beach, Ontario and Los Angeles International airports.