Revenue From LAX

Robert W. Poole Jr., president of the Reason Foundation, tried to bring his privatization crusade down at Los Angeles International Airport on the Commentary page (June 29), but his purely ideological fuel left him short of the runway.

He is following his worn-out flight plan for spreading his gospel without checking the ground conditions at LAX. He cites “evidence from more than 75 countries” yet doesn’t explain why privatization has never been carried out in the good ol’ free-market, airline-deregulated U.S.

His first premise is that private enterprise is more efficient and productive than government-run operations. While that may be true at Britain’s airports, the canard just doesn’t fit LAX.

The L.A. Board of Airport Commissioners boasts of LAX’s efficient world-class operation and has used this as the justification for being able to charge the lowest landing fees of any major U.S. airport.

Poole’s second principle is that government should stop gouging private industry. He applies it here by asking us to not just raise landing fees but also to increases concession revenue. Then he again mixes apples and oranges by jumping to privatized airports in Canada and Britain.

In this case also, LAX is entirely different from the other airports. No one claims that LAX suffers from low concession revenue. In fact, revenue from concessions and reasonably priced parking makes the bargain-basement landing fees possible.

Raising the landing fees to a market-based rate would just require the airlines to contribute as least as much as individuals to the operation of the nation’s third busiest airport. Why should the airlines stick it to the people of Los Angeles?

While Poole writes off the likelihood of repealing the federal Airport and Airways Improvement Act, the City Council is moving forward on my proposal to work with Congress to do just that.

The City Charter is not an obstacle to running LAX as a for-profit business. LAX turns a hefty profit every year. The charter is an obstacle to transferring that revenue to the city. My proposed charter amendment would remove that barrier.

RUTH GALANTER

Los Angeles Councilwoman