Lindbergh Field Project : USAir Wants to Expand Despite Port Warnings
San Diego Unified Port District officials are considering a multimillion-dollar proposal by USAir to expand the airline’s terminal space at Lindbergh Field by building a second story to house modern gate ramps and a new passenger club.
USAir--which subsumed hometown Pacific Southwest Airlines in a corporate merger in April, 1988--is pushing its plans to pay for a $9.1-million expansion of its eight gates despite warnings from Port District officials that the governmental agency may be forced to tear down those gates altogether to build a second taxiway at the cramped airport.
“You are talking about a $9-million facility that the district may want to recover,” said Don Hillman, the port’s director of operations. “We’re trying to explain to them there is a financial risk that they would have to bear.
“USAir’s response is, ‘We’re willing to take the risk,’ ” Hillman said.
USAir’s willingness to sink significant money into its terminal comes at a time when port officials and civic leaders openly acknowledge that Lindbergh’s days are numbered as San Diego’s main airport. As local leaders narrow the search for a place to build a replacement airfield, port officials are awaiting a consultant’s report on how best to rearrange Lindbergh so it can minimize crowding and runway congestion during the next decade.
The airline’s proposal would “modernize” its eight gates, situated in Lindbergh’s East Terminal and inherited through its mergers with PSA and Piedmont, said Larry Pickett, a USAir assistant vice president for corporate communications.
The gates are along one of two rotundas that jut from the terminal toward the runway. The second rotunda, which has gates for United and other airlines, was expanded at port expense in 1982 to include a second story with modern gate ramps leading to the airplanes.
PSA executives, however, declined the port’s offer to expand their gates at the time, opting instead to stick with the old-fashioned method of asking passengers to walk out onto the apron and climb a set of stairs to the plane.
Now USAir wants to play catchup by adding a 29,150-square-foot, second-story deck over its gates to accommodate the modern ramps. In addition, the airline wants to dedicate 3,800 square feet of that space for a new USAir Club, where its waiting passengers can lounge.
Most Are Business Travelers
“Something like 60% or more of our passengers are business travelers. Our marketing people have found that this (a club) is a popular feature,” Pickett said, adding that the airline also wants to build a club at San Francisco International Airport.
The modernization also calls for USAir to remodel its ticket counter, back offices and baggage handling area in the rotunda and elsewhere in the East Terminal.
Port commissioners last week gave the airline approval to hire an architect and draw up plans for the project. But they reserved the right to make a final determination before construction starts, in part because of concerns over how the addition could interfere with other plans at Lindbergh, Hillman said.
One of those plans, suggested by the Port District’s consultants, calls for the construction of a second taxiway south of the main runway. The taxiway would allow more airplanes to maneuver around the airport’s lone runway, thus alleviating delays at the boarding gates, Hillman said.
But building the new taxiway would mean razing the two rotundas at the east terminal--an alternative that would become even more troublesome if USAir is allowed to invest $9 million in new gate space, Hillman said.
Port District authorities also note that USAir’s lease on its gates expires in 1994, leaving the airline just a short time to amortize its investment on the new second deck if the port were to decide to give its gates to another carrier.
In either scenario, port officials are concerned that USAir officials will come back to the agency and ask for a reimbursement on their investment, Hillman said. Thus, staff members and commissioners have extracted a promise from the airline that, if the construction project is approved, the company will proceed at its own risk.
Hillman also said that Port District staff members have doubted the need for a passenger club at Lindbergh.
“We are not a hub airport,” he said. “We’re a destination airport. The need for a club facility is less than in Chicago, where you might have a five-hour layover.”
But Pickett said USAir is confident its club would be popular. He also said the company is willing to pursue its construction plans, despite reservations about the taxiway and Lindbergh’s future use.
“Whenever we make a commitment like this, we figure it’s going to be around for a while,” Pickett said. “If we thought it (the expansion) would be torn down in a year, we wouldn’t want to build it.”
