LONG BEACH : City May Propose Easing Flight Limits

A six-year cease-fire has been declared in the lengthy legal battle between the city and a group of airlines over flight restrictions at Long Beach Airport.

Under a proposed settlement, the city can enact an ordinance limiting airlines to 41 daily flights, the same allotment set six years ago by a U.S. District Court judge. The airlines agreed to continue using the quietest jetliners.

Airline business at the airport has dwindled to the point where five airlines now offer only 12 daily flights, but city officials said the agreement will remove the cloud of litigation and allow the city to try to lure more airlines.

“This clears the way for the city to go out and romance the airlines to come back to Long Beach,” said Terry Fiskin, a member of the Airport Advisory Commission. “But once you divorce somebody, it’s hard to get them to fall in love with you again.”

The ordinance, which the City Council will consider early next year after an environmental review is completed, will expire Jan. 1, 2001. “Basically, that’s when all bets are off,” said Airport Manager Chris Kunze.

The city will be free to change flight and noise limits and the airlines can challenge the rules in court again.

Ten airlines sued the city in federal court in 1983 after the city imposed a limit of 18 flights a day. Airlines claimed the cap was unreasonable. In 1988, a U.S. District Court judge ruled that the limit was unconstitutional and set a temporary limit of 41 flights. The city appealed.

In 1989, 10 carriers operated at Long Beach Airport, offering the maximum 41 daily flights. But a year later, airlines began eliminating flights or pulling out of the airport altogether as the economy began to slump.

Mike Donelon, founder of the 1,500-member neighborhood association for California Heights, the community located west of the airport, said his neighbors are resigned to the compromise agreement.