Riordan Accuses Airlines of ‘Lies’ on Landing Fees

Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan lashed out at the airline industry Sunday for the tactics it is using to oppose higher landing fees at Los Angeles International Airport, accusing the major carriers of telling “lie after lie” about the increases.

With a showdown over the fee hikes scheduled for Saturday, Riordan said he plans to stick to his deadline for blocking airport access to any airline that refuses to pay the higher fees. But he promised that LAX would not be shut down even if the airlines continue to balk.

Interviewed on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” the Republican mayor also endorsed legislation sponsored by Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) to ban the sale of a wide range of assault weapons, and he indicated that he would support other measures to limit handgun proliferation.

But he expressed reservations about a proposal reportedly under consideration by the Clinton Administration to subsidize private firms that hire welfare recipients.

Riordan, clearly angered and frustrated by the LAX standoff, defended the higher landing fees imposed in July to raise more money for municipal services. The fees were tripled, jumping from 51 cents to $1.56 per 1,000 pounds. The fee for a Boeing 747, for example, has increased from about $300 per landing to about $900.

As of Thursday, 21 smaller carriers were paying the increased landing charges. But 75 carriers, accounting for 90% of the nearly 2,000 daily takeoffs and landings at LAX, have refused. Any airlines that are still holding out by Saturday can no longer use the airport, Riordan said.

In a move intended to pressure the airlines and inform the public of the potential reduction of service, the city has purchased a “travelers advisory” advertisement in today’s editions of The Times listing those carriers, many of them small, that have complied with the new fees.

Riordan said the airport will remain open for business even if the major carriers stop landing there because of the dispute. “We will have air service from any of the airlines who pay what they owe to the airport,” he said.

He noted that major airlines are already paying higher landing fees at some airports in the New York metropolitan area than they are now charged at LAX.

“It’s not as if we are gouging the airlines,” he said.

Riordan accused the major airlines of making deceptive claims in their campaign to roll back the fee hikes. “The airlines have been putting out lie after lie, and I’m just fed up with it,” he said. “I think that they’ve got to stand on the line, tell the truth, and then fight it on fair ground.”

He noted, for instance, that the airlines have accused him of planning to divert proceeds from the higher fees to help finance police operations and other crime-fighting costs, as he promised to do during his mayoral campaign earlier this year. But Riordan said that he now intends to comply with federal regulations that require him to earmark the landing fee revenue for airport purposes.

“L.A. is going to comply with the law,” he said. “We will not take a penny off the airport that in any way is against the law or any rules or regulations of the federal government.”

Use of airport funds for non-airport purposes has been fiercely opposed by the airlines.

Forty airlines sued in July seeking to block the city’s move to raise the landing fees, charging that the levies would violate federal laws and international aviation agreements prohibiting the imposition of fees higher than those needed to operate an airport. Higher courts have upheld the city’s right to block the airlines’ access to the airport until they pay, but the airlines’ suit has not been completely resolved.

Riordan said he still hopes to follow through on his initial proposal to use the funds for crime prevention.

“I would hope that the airlines and the federal government would get together with us and say that the stockholders of the airport, this multibillion-dollar asset, can get some dividend from the airport,” he said. “The stockholders in this case is the public, and let the public get some of the money for safety. But if we can’t work that out, we’re not going to take the money off the airport.”

In the joint interview with New York City Mayor-elect Rudolph W. Giuliani, Riordan also discussed how Republicans, in control of the nation’s two largest cities for the first time in 75 years, will fare in dealing with pressing urban problems such as crime, poverty and welfare dependence.

He said that big-city mayors increasingly tend to be evaluated by city residents on a nonpartisan basis; a successful modern mayor must be a “problem solver,” not a politician.

Riordan said that on many emotional issues--gay rights, for example--Republican leaders in central cities should shuck traditional GOP positions. Republican mayors should differ from Democrats on issues of “process,” not on their ultimate objectives, he said.

Riordan and Giuliani made it clear that they believe they cannot govern successfully in modern urban settings by faithfully turning to the Republican Party’s conservative agenda for all the answers.

Both said they believe that the Republican Party is wrong on gun control. Riordan endorsed Feinstein’s pending bill to ban assault weapons and said he favors other measures designed to move the United States closer to his ideal of limiting the use of handguns to police.

But he said he is not prepared to say that Los Angeles merchants should not be allowed to carry handguns. He also noted that any rapid move to ban handgun sales would likely prove unconstitutional.

Politically, Riordan said he may be willing to support Democrats in major races.

He said he has not decided whether to campaign against Feinstein’s reelection bid next year by supporting her Republican opponent. He also has not decided whether to campaign for Gov. Pete Wilson.

“Sen. Feinstein has been my strongest supporter on the airports; she’s been my eyes and ears in Washington on that,” Riordan said. “So I have tremendous respect for her. I will have to look at their opponents, and I’ll make my decision then.”

Riordan went out of his way to compliment President Clinton’s performance in recent months. “I think if you look at him on balance, he’s doing very well,” Riordan said. “He had obviously a shaky start, but he’s a very bright person. He’s focusing well, and if you look at him in the last month, he’s done great.”

But the mayor was less enthusiastic about the plan reportedly being considered by the White House to move people off the welfare rolls by giving employers subsidies to hire them.

Riordan warned that similar efforts in the past have proved costly, with limited results. Far more can be achieved, he said, by spending money on kindergarten education and computer training for disadvantaged youths.