A Safe Landing for LAX Negotiation

After a 20-hour marathon negotiating session--and amid Los Angeles’ threat to shut down L.A. International Airport beginning Saturday--airline representatives and LAX officials, with the federal government anxiously hovering over them like some nervous in-law, cut a good deal.

The airlines reluctantly consented to higher landing fees--the threefold increase that LAX officials had demanded. And the federal government agreed to take a more active role in monitoring what the airlines clearly regarded as fee-gouging by the city.

Last June LAX officials replaced their decades-old budgeting system with a modern one that allocates LAX expenses to airport users, such as the carriers.

Not surprisingly, 75 airlines, which together account for 90% of flights at LAX, bitterly fought the new landing fees. The carriers claimed that the new fees were unreasonably high. The issue is now in federal court.

For the short run, credit for the city’s victory clearly goes to Mayor Richard Riordan and his appointee to the Airport Commission, Ted Stein, who took a firm position with the airlines.

However, the fee hike could still be thrown out by the courts. More to the point, the ultimate outcome of Riordan’s long-range strategy to leverage airport revenues to fund other city needs is a long way from fruition.

Even so, the mayor--who on Tuesday admitted publicly, and graciously, to having made a mistake in agreeing to recent pay hikes in a controversial local municipal works’ contract--enjoyed a much better Wednesday.