Taking Wing : Transportation: Officials say 91,000 passengers will use Oxnard Airport this year. It provides service to Los Angeles and San Francisco.

Dena-Lynn Echiverri tapped the keys of her word processor behind the United Express counter at Oxnard Airport, printing out two tickets to Chicago.

A minute later, Echiverri, who is United’s lead passenger agent in Oxnard, headed across the main floor of the terminal, carrying the Chicago-bound couple’s luggage.

After wishing her customers a pleasant trip, she snapped on a set of ear protectors, grabbed a pair of ground-crew wands and headed for the aircraft landing area.

Two minutes later, she was frantically waving in a twin turbojet that had just arrived from San Francisco.

So it goes at Oxnard Airport, the busy little field that provides the only scheduled airline service in Ventura County.

It’s no LAX, O’Hare or Heathrow, but some travelers insist that the best way for Ventura County residents to get to Seattle, Chicago, New York, or even London, is to take one of the feeder flights that connect Oxnard with Los Angeles and San Francisco.

On a recent afternoon, the Oxnard terminal, which has appeared in several movies and TV commercials, was about half full.

Lee Melvin of Hermiston, Ore., was getting ready to board the 4 p.m. United Express flight to San Francisco, where he would transfer to a United Airlines flight to Portland.

“The travel agency suggested that I try this instead of leaving from LAX,” he said. “I figure it will save me at least two hours.”

Melanie Guzzi of Hayward, Calif., arrived from Oakland carrying her 20-month-old daughter, Clara. They had transferred at LAX to an American Eagle plane for the 15-minute flight to Oxnard.

“It worked out fine,” she said. “It saved us a lot of trouble arranging to get here from LAX. The airline took care of moving our luggage from one plane to another.”

Guzzi’s sister, Deborah Fitzgibbons, who lives two miles from Oxnard Airport, said, “We love this airport. We’ve used it to fly to Bakersfield and then to Las Vegas.

“But we hope it never gets any bigger. Right now, it’s no problem to us, but we do live nearby.”

One traveler, however, had a problem. When Matt Hackenburg, a Seabee based at Port Hueneme, arrived on American Eagle’s 1:48 p.m. flight from LAX, his luggage wasn’t aboard. Somebody had failed to transfer it from the American Airlines plane on which Hackenburg had arrived from Cleveland.

Hackenburg waited patiently, having been told that his bags would arrive on the 3:51 from LAX. They arrived as promised.

An American Eagle passenger agent, Steve Hodges, helped his wife, Carolyn, and their 7-month-old daughter, Megan, get ready to fly to San Diego via LAX.

“I’ve worked here eight months, and business keeps getting better,” he said. “We had 1,800 departures in June. That’s a record for the month.”

Although it is served by only two so-called feeder airlines, about 91,000 passengers will use Oxnard Airport this year, said Nona Makinson, operations manager of the county Department of Airports.

That represents a sharp increase over several years ago, she said. As recently as 1988, passenger traffic totaled only 31,000.

Despite its growth, the airport is hardly a threat to Los Angeles International Airport. Oxnard’s current passenger traffic amounts to less than 0.2% of the 45.8 million travelers who used LAX last year.

The Oxnard Airport, which opened in 1934, was taken over first by the Army Air Corps and then by the Navy during World War II. It’s a relatively small field, covering 220 acres on 5th Street between Victoria Avenue and Ventura Road.

“We had a dramatic traffic increase starting in August, 1989,” Makinson said. “That’s when United Express added its San Francisco flights. That single move increased passenger departures at Oxnard by 35%.”

Makinson and her boss, Marshall A. (Mac) MacKinen, the county airports administrator, expect the trend to continue, with traffic reaching about 115,000 by the end of the decade.

“We’ve sponsored a study which shows that Oxnard Airport means $38 million a year to Ventura County’s economy,” Makinson said. “Put another way, Oxnard Airport is responsible for $104,000 a day in local spending.”

In addition to its passenger traffic, the airport also handles 3 million pounds of freight and baggage annually, Makinson said.

The other county-owned airport in Camarillo brings even more dollars into the county than Oxnard, Makinson said. But the Camarillo field, a busy center for private planes and freight carriers, does not offer passenger airline service.

The passenger carriers now serving Oxnard are United Express, which is independently owned but has a working relationship with United Airlines, and American Eagle, an affiliate of American Airlines. Between them, the two lines serving Oxnard average about 30 takeoffs and landings a day, mostly between Oxnard and LAX.

A third carrier, California Air Shuttle, which connected the county with Las Vegas, Sacramento and other cities, discontinued service a year ago.

Passengers who use United Express to connect with United Airlines, or American Eagle to connect with American Airlines, can fly between Oxnard and Los Angeles at no extra cost. But the fare is prohibitive for travelers wanting to connect with other major airlines or for someone who simply wants to fly between Oxnard and LAX. An unrestricted one-way ticket costs $111, and the price of a round trip purchased 21 days in advance is $108.

On its San Francisco run, United Express, which is operated by WestAir Airlines, a Fresno-based concern, charges about $40 additional each way to Oxnard passengers connecting with United Airlines flights to the Pacific Northwest and the Orient. The trip between Oxnard and the Bay Area takes about an hour and 40 minutes.

United Express also offers a little-known bargain to Ventura County residents who want to fly directly to and from San Francisco--$44 for a one-way excursion ticket bought 21 days in advance.

Since jets are not allowed to use the local airport, turboprops--propeller-driven craft using jet-powered engines--are flown by both carriers that serve the county. The planes carry 19 passengers and a crew of two.

MacKinen and Makinson would like to see a third carrier replace the departed California Air Shuttle. They believe that a new carrier would do well offering service to such cities as San Jose, Las Vegas, Phoenix and San Diego.

These cities, as well as Denver and Dallas, can, incidentally, be reached by jet from Santa Barbara Airport in Goleta. Hazel Johns, Santa Barbara’s assistant airport director, estimates that about 20,000 Ventura County residents use the Santa Barbara facility annually.

Beyond the prospect of adding another non-jet carrier, there are no plans now to acquire more land or add jet service at Oxnard Airport.

“Conceivably, if we modified the runway and terminal, we could accept jets,” Makinson said. But, she said, the concerns of residents near the airport have prompted the County Board of Supervisors to rule out any consideration of jet service there through at least 1995.

The supervisors, in fact, have insisted that recent purchasers of tract houses near the airport sign waivers promising not to sue the county over aircraft noise. Oxnard High School, located just east of the field, is tentatively scheduled to be relocated because some teachers and students have complained about noise.

Some business leaders, though, are eager to see expanded air service in the county, either at Oxnard Airport or at a newly built facility.

“We need it badly,” said Richard L. Fausset, a real estate developer and president of the Oxnard Chamber of Commerce. “I would defy anybody to find another population base as great as that of Ventura County that has no significant air service.”

Airport Traffic Rising

Passenger traffic at Oxnard Airport increased dramatically in August, 1989, when United Express added San Francisco flights. 1986: 23,600 1987: 33,600 1988: 31,000 1989: 55,000 1990: 92,000 1991: 91,000* 2000: 115,000* * Projected Source: Ventura County Department of Airports