Airline to Offer Flights Between Palmdale, LAX

Westates Airlines, a Burlingame-based charter service, has moved a step closer to becoming the first air carrier to offer scheduled passenger service from the Palmdale Air Terminal since 1983, planning to begin flights to Los Angeles International Airport.

Palmdale city officials and others who want the Antelope Valley to become a commercial air transportation center hope that the Los Angeles Board of Airport Commissioners’ approval this week of Westates’ lease at Palmdale Air Terminal will attract other commercial carriers to the high desert.

The lease is effective Aug. 1, or before if the airline moves in earlier.

“Other airlines will be watching them closely,” said Harry Shaw, a local businessman who has been pushing to revive air service in Palmdale for six years. “We want to have more than just a commuter-type airport.”

Westates will operate out of the now unused terminal, which uses the runways of the adjacent Air Force Plant 42 in Palmdale, and will offer daily shuttle flights on a 50-seat, Convair turboprop aircraft, officials said.

Local Interest

At meetings earlier this month, Antelope Valley residents told airline officials of local interest in flights to San Francisco, Sacramento, Reno, Las Vegas and the Pacific Northwest, according to Shaw and Palmdale city officials. Shaw said airline officials stated that they would expand “wherever the traffic took them” and discussed plans to provide joint service with larger carriers flying out of LAX.

But on Thursday, Westates Airlines Vice President Woody Woodruff would not discuss the airline’s plans beyond confirming the LAX-Palmdale flights. He declined to discuss a potential starting date, schedule or prices. Woodruff said the airline provides charter service in the United States and Mexico.

An agreement between the Los Angeles Department of Airports and the Air Force permits 50 commercial flights daily out of the Palmdale terminal on Plant 42’s runways. A proposal to increase that ceiling to 200 flights is being studied for its environmental effects.

Previous shuttle services by several airlines using small planes were sporadic and unsuccessful. But Palmdale City Manager Robert Toone said the recent growth of the Antelope Valley’s population and the larger capacity of the 50-passenger Westates aircraft will help the new service thrive.

In addition, Shaw said, many residents are looking for an alternative to congested freeways.

“It’s getting more and more difficult to get to LAX, especially on holidays and holiday weekends,” he said. “It would be great to be able to fly there.”

Shaw said he hopes commercial traffic at Palmdale Air Terminal will increase to the point that the Department of Airports will proceed with plans to build a large airport on land it owns in Palmdale.