Major Improvements Are Urged at Oxnard, Camarillo Airports

Despite a decrease in flights in and out of airports in Oxnard and Camarillo, county aviation officials Tuesday unveiled plans recommending major improvements to both sites--including larger terminals, new hangars and longer runways.

The upgrade plans--costing as much as $31 million in Oxnard and $25 million in Camarillo--come at a time when a consortium of local officials is considering plans to open the Point Mugu Navy airstrip to commercial customers.

Still, aviation officials believe the smaller airports will survive and the upgrades are needed to turn around the declines of recent years.

“We still have more demand between the [Camarillo and Oxnard] airports than one airport can manage,” said Rodney Murphy, airport administrator for the county, which operates the two airfields.

The total number of commercial passenger boardings at Oxnard Airport dropped from 46,275 in 1990 to 39,989 in 1994. And overall, the total number of takeoffs and landings, including private planes, declined from 143,526 to 95,424 in the same period.

Despite the dip, the plan forecasts the number of passenger boardings at the Oxnard facility will more than double--soaring to 86,000--by 2015.

At Camarillo Airport, operating revenue dropped from $948,000 in 1991 to about $425,000 last year. Also, the total number of takeoffs and landings has dipped from about 206,000 five years ago to about 186,000, the master plan for the airport states.

Drafted by Coffman Associates of Phoenix, the 20-year master plans for the two airports conclude that without substantial improvements, the airports could not keep up with demand.

“If the demand is not there, we are not spending the money,” Murphy said. “If our estimates are wrong--let’s say they are five years off--then we delay the improvements for five years.”

The county Board of Supervisors will consider adopting the master plan in April but will not apply for federal money for the upgrades until the improvements are needed. The federal government could pay as much as 80% of the costs.

Presented to Oxnard’s City Council for review Tuesday, the 20-year master plan for that city’s airport calls for acquiring open land ringing the airport to create a larger safety buffer. The report also suggests adding two new airplane taxiways, nearly tripling the size of the air terminal to 21,900 square feet and nearly doubling the number of available parking spaces.

In Camarillo, where city officials tonight are scheduled to look at long-range plans for that airstrip, administrators are considering substantial improvements that include building more than 150 new hangars by 2015 and lengthening the 6,010-foot runway to allow for more corporate takeoffs and landings.

Executives from western Ventura County companies, such as GTE and Procter & Gamble, already use Camarillo Airport regularly. Making the runway longer would help recruit more corporate headquarters to the area, the report concluded.

“Adequate runway length for trips to the eastern half of the United States will aid these businesses as well as potentially attract other business and industry to the Ventura County area,” the plan states.

But the report predicts that congestion at regional airports will encourage private pilots and business planes to relocate to smaller airports, meaning revenues, flights and training at Camarillo may rise soon.

Despite a long-standing feud between some Camarillo residents and airport administrators, Camarillo Mayor David M. Smith agrees that planning for the airport’s future is important.

“If the flights are there, then the improvements should be made,” said Smith, who had already reviewed the thick master plan. “It will be safer and better for the airport and its residents.”

Murphy blames the recent slump in passengers flying out of Oxnard--Ventura County’s only commercial airport--to the loss of flights to Northern California and Las Vegas. American Eagle and United Express now operate 15 daily flights to Los Angeles International Airport.

But he said he is close to attracting two new carriers to the airport that would launch passenger service to Sacramento and the Bay Area, further boosting ridership.

“Over the next two years, normal business growth and [passenger] use will bring the numbers back to where they were or a little higher” Murphy said.

Oxnard City Councilman Andres Herrera, a member of the Oxnard Airport Authority, said improvements to Oxnard Airport would allow the facility to meet its current and future needs.

“It is not going to be extended beyond its capacity,” he said.

City Councilman Tom Holden said the county should have moved forward with improvements when the Oxnard Airport was generating more money. This year, the airport is expected to lose $69,500 in operating costs.

Murphy acknowledged that it was “a poor business decision. We hope to correct that in the future.”

Plans to provide commercial and cargo jet service from the 11,000-foot runway at the Point Mugu Navy base would not detract from the need to upgrade the airports in Oxnard and Camarillo, Murphy said. The proposed airport would not be open to general aviation traffic, which now uses the smaller airfields.