USAir Seeks 2nd Level at Terminal
In his first public appearance in San Diego since his company bought Pacific Southwest Airlines last year, USAir Group Chairman Edwin I. Colodny had a request to make: a $10-million expansion of the airline’s terminal at Lindbergh Field.
Colodny unveiled the proposal in a talk before the Greater San Diego Chamber of Commerce at noon Tuesday shortly before discussing it at an informal gathering with San Diego Unified Port District commissioners at the USAir administration building at Lindbergh Field. After his chamber talk, Colodny said USAir would like to start renovation within two years.
Wants a ‘Total Upgrade’
“We would like a major renovation, a total upgrade to include a second level of the (USAir) terminal. It would help us improve the handling of our customers,” Colodny said, adding that USAir’s flight capacity at Lindbergh would likely be unaffected by the renovation.
As envisioned by USAir, the expansion would add a second level to USAir’s portion of Lindbergh Field’s East Terminal. The new level would enable the airline to load passengers from so-called loading bridges without making passengers go out to the tarmac and climb movable stairways to board planes, as is currently the case.
Colodny’s proposed expansion would be paid for mainly by USAir, according to Louis Wolfsheimer, one of the port commissioners who met with Colodny.
“I thought (the proposal) was interesting and a reasonable request,” Wolfsheimer said. “There are very few (airports) left where you have to go outside and climb up stairs to get to the door of a plane.”
Other Loading Bridges
Both the West Terminal and the eastern end of the East Terminal have second-level loading bridges, airport manager Maurice “Bud” McDonald said Tuesday.
Dennis O’Dell, general counsel of PS Group, which was PSA’s parent company until it sold the airline to USAir for $400 million last year, said the idea of building a second level was something PSA kicked around from time to time but was always put aside because of more-pressing expansions of PSA facilities in Los Angeles, Las Vegas, San Francisco and elsewhere.
“In San Diego, where the weather is good, the situation (of having passengers walk the terminal and up the movable stairways) had worked reasonably well and therefore was not quite as high a priority,” O’Dell said. “But it would have been appropriate at some point, so I’m not surprised USAir is asking for it.”
USAir’s request is likely to receive close attention from the Port District because the airline is an important tenant. USAir now accounts for about 21% of all passenger traffic at Lindbergh Field, far ahead of American Airlines and United, the second- and third-highest volume air carriers, respectively.
