No Time to Indulge Pie-in-the-Sky : * Deciding Fate of Former Bases Calls for Common Sense

How many airports does Southern California really need? The debate over the future of El Toro Marine Corps base is part of regional jockeying that threatens to create unhealthy competition between candidates for commercial fields. Or it could put ambitious local airport authorities needlessly in hock.

While few experts doubt the need for new commercial airports to serve Southern California in the years ahead, the key questions are how many and where.

The recession prompts a fresh look at dusty growth projections. The flurry of planned and possible military base closings has lent urgency to the question as hopeful communities line up to convert existing air fields.

Common sense is needed. The region ought to avoid pitting counties against one another in a race to cash in on a development bonanza. The result could be huge debt and an overabundance of landing places.

The argument currently raging over the future of El Toro Marine Corps Air Station illustrates the risk and also the reality.

Some community leaders in Newport Beach, unhappy with air traffic from nearby John Wayne Airport, appear to be so eager to saddle the county with a new airport at El Toro that they have joined forces with lobbyists for Miramar Naval Air Station in San Diego, where El Toro’s aircraft would be relocated.

But in trying to will the closure of El Toro, they encourage the fantasy that a new airfield can somehow take airplanes out of the skies over Newport Beach.

It is not at all clear that a commercial base is either needed at El Toro or that it can be paid for if the demand is there. In their urgency, the lobbyists are prepared to dismiss decades of productive relationships between the Marines and Orange County.

Elsewhere in Southern California, the battle of the Tarmac goes on. Experts say it is unlikely that both San Bernardino and Riverside counties can support more than one new international airport.

Rival developers are at war over the planned conversion of George Air Force Base, and Norton Air Force Base also is under consideration. The plot thickens: There are plans for a commercial airport at March Air Force Base, which is close to Norton.

Clearly, somebody is going to come out on the short end of the stick. There are cutbacks in airline operations to consider too.

The rush to close military bases, meanwhile, could leave little time for the Federal Aviation Administration and regional planners to really examine the region’s needs.

Fortunately, the Southern California Assn. of Governments is currently studying where air travel demand is likely to grow. But as the base closure commission does its work, and as regional planners assess their needs, some overall coordination of airport development planning is needed.

In Orange County, there is a false sense of urgency. One need only stop by the new facility most weekday evenings to confirm what planners acknowledge--that John Wayne is not operating at full capacity.

And there are real questions about whether air carriers would want two airports so close as El Toro and John Wayne. This despite the rosy hope of Newport Beach Mayor Clarence J. Turner that El Toro can one day be an international facility.

As airlines are cutting back, the recession puts existing growth projections in doubt. If you build an airport, they will not necessarily fly in. Planning and common sense are needed to temper the race to be first on the block with a new airfield.