LAX Officials to Urge Major Expansion

Officials intend to unveil today a plan to increase by 60% the number of travelers passing through Los Angeles International Airport by 2015--an expansion designed to maintain the city’s preeminent position as a West Coast hub for tourism, travel and trade.

The announcement is the first definitive step toward the most ambitious expansion of LAX since the 1984 Olympics, but the blueprint is fraught with political and financial dilemmas that could take years to resolve.

Challenges confronting airport officials and Mayor Richard Riordan, a prime booster, include:

* Finding as much as $12 billion to fund the new runways, terminals, roads and an internal railway without forcing substantially higher ticket prices.

* Appeasing airline executives, who are wary of the high cost and who feel they have been largely left out of the first 1 1/2 years of expansion planning.

* Overcoming the concerns of neighbors in Westchester, El Segundo and other communities, who say they are already overburdened by roaring jets and snarled traffic.

* Passing a rigorous environmental review and winning the approval of the Los Angeles City Council. Councilwoman Ruth Galanter, who represents the area, has many reservations about expansion and said other airports in the region must also pick up some of the burden.

The plan must be approved by a welter of government agencies, beginning with the Los Angeles Airport Commission and including the Los Angeles City Council and the Federal Aviation Administration.

Bonds would be used to finance the expansion, which could cost up to twice as much as the floundering Metro Rail subway project. The debt could be repaid through higher airline landing fees, increased rents on terminals and cargo warehouses or surcharges on airline tickets. Airline executives argue that costs must be kept to a minimum, so that higher ticket prices and cargo fees don’t drive away the very patrons that the project is meant to attract.

Under the most ambitious of four proposals drawn up by a consultant, LAX’s passenger traffic would grow from the current 58 million passengers a year to 93 million and its air cargo shipments would more than double, from 1.7 million tons to a projected 4.2 million tons.

One or two runways would be added to the current four; an automated people mover would be constructed to connect existing terminals to new terminals that would reach nearly to the El Segundo bluffs, and existing runways would be reconfigured to service a new generation of 600-passenger jumbo jets.

Economists and Riordan’s office insist on the necessity of expanding an airport already bursting at the seams. LAX is now the second-busiest air cargo airport and the third-busiest passenger airport in the world.

“The primary issue is the increased demand for air service in the Southern California area,” said John J. Driscoll, executive director of the Department of Airports, which governs LAX and airport properties in Van Nuys, Palmdale and Ontario. “The airlines have come to us and said something needs to be done.”

The LAX proposal is being made public just two days after the Orange County Board of Supervisors endorsed the construction of an international airport at the El Toro Marine Corps Air Station. Officials there also cited burgeoning air traffic and commerce with the Far East in advocating an airport with a capacity of up to 25 million passengers a year. That project also faces environmental review and litigation by opponents.

Galanter protested that officials in Orange and Los Angeles counties are not coordinating their efforts to handle the increasing air traffic, which she agreed could be a benefit to the local economy. Local officials also have no idea whether thousands of additional airplanes flying over Southern California will create greater danger, because FAA officials have declined to speak definitively on the situation, Galanter said.

The federal agency did not respond Thursday to The Times’ request for comment.

The consulting firm of Landrum & Brown helped draw the expansion proposal after 18 months of study. The four alternatives to be presented at a press conference today share many components.

All of the proposals would include a new Western Terminal near Pershing Drive and the El Segundo Bluffs, the coastal dunes that overlook the Pacific Ocean and are home to several endangered species, including the El Segundo blue butterfly.

The new terminal and the rest of the airport would be linked by a people mover, a small train that might also be connected to the Metro Rail Green Line station near Aviation Boulevard.

A ring road would be constructed to connect the San Diego Freeway, the Century Freeway and LAX, allowing passengers to be dropped off or picked up without congesting surface streets.

Other terminals would be demolished and reconfigured to make way for bigger jets. The cargo operations would be expanded to an area on Imperial Highway between Aviation Boulevard and the San Diego Freeway.

The four proposals differ principally in how they would provide facilities for smaller commuter airlines, with dedicated runways proposed for the north or the south end of the airport, or both. Currently, commuter planes land on the same runways as larger jets. One proposal would even redirect all commuter airline flights to nearby Hawthorne Municipal Airport, where facilities would be expanded.

Here is a summary of each proposal:

* No. 1: Add a 6,000-foot commuter plane runway on the northwest side of the airport, parallel to Westchester Parkway. The most southern runway would be moved 300 feet to the south toward Imperial Highway. Terminals 1, 2 and 3 would be demolished and reconfigured to serve wider jets. A north runway would be moved south and to the east, closer to the current terminal location. Capacity: 85.5 million passengers.

* No. 2: Add two new 6,000-foot commuter plane runways on the northwest and southeast sides of the airport. The northernmost existing runway would be shifted and extended, requiring that Sepulveda and Airport boulevards be tunneled underneath the runways. Terminals 1, 2 and 3 would remain and be augmented by a fourth terminal, with the Tom Bradley International Terminal to be expanded by 12 to 15 gates. Capacity: 90 million passengers.

* No. 3: Similar to the second proposal, it would place a new commuter runway over Pershing Drive. Capacity: 90 million passengers.

* No. 4: Includes the proposal to route commuter flights to Hawthorne Municipal Airport, with passengers being bused on a dedicated road to LAX to make connecting flights. The municipal airport runway would be extended 1,000 feet, extending over the current route of Crenshaw Boulevard. Capacity: 93 million passengers.

Airport officials conceded that the final proposal is the least likely to come about and officials in Hawthorne said they are skeptical. Hawthorne Mayor Larry Guidi said he would prefer to have distribution centers and warehouses serving LAX, rather than increased air traffic.

But Dan Garcia, president of the Los Angeles Airport Commission, said Los Angeles must expand its facilities if it is to remain a dominant commercial center. “The bottom line is that if we are unable to meet the capacity of continued growth these planes will go elsewhere,” Garcia said.

The last time the airport expanded was in preparation for the 1984 Olympics. Improvements included new domestic and international terminals and a double-deck roadway around the airport.

Airport officials said they see the need for expansion every day, in the form of runways, taxiways and terminals that are clogged with airplanes and passengers. The Tom Bradley International Terminal, which opened 12 years ago, is swamped and several airlines have added international gates and customs facilities at domestic terminals to absorb the influx.

“Still, you often have an international flight come in and wait on the tarmac 45 minutes for a gate,” said one airline official, who asked not to be named. “Then people come in and customs is overflowing. They wait two hours to get through customs. . . . That is not a very good first impression to give of Los Angeles.”

But thoughts of burgeoning international trade and travel to exotic lands are lost in the roar of jets and the smell of jet fuel that lingers every day over communities such as El Segundo and Westchester.

“This is absolutely absurd,” said Liz Garnholz, whose El Segundo home is about a mile away from the south runway. She chairs the El Segundo Aviation Safety and Noise Abatement Committee and complains that the distance from the nearest homes would be reduced substantially.

Added Harvey Holden, the El Segundo official who oversees airport issues: “We would resist it tooth and nail. There would be a predictable increase in noise in the city.”

Residents on the other side of LAX, in Westchester and Playa del Rey, also recoiled at the description of the plan. “I’m quite certain the residents of Westchester and Playa del Rey won’t be happy with that at all,” said Roy Hefner, past president of the LAX Airport Area Advisory Committee and a Westchester resident for 42 years.

Councilwoman Galanter said she is dubious about studies about LAX, which has long exceeded the 40-million annual passenger limit that a study by the Southern California Assn. of Governments once said was optimal. She called for the whole region to absorb the nearly 100 million additional passengers that could use airports here over the next two decades--including consideration of building an airport on city-owned property in Palmdale.

Airline industry officials have written off the latter idea, claiming that the high altitude and heat of Palmdale would make it difficult for larger jets to land.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

LAX Expansion

Plans to dramatically expand Los Angeles International Airport by the year 2015 currently focus on four possible configurations. Here are some of the key elements.

1) RUNWAYS: One or two commuter-plane runways would be added to the north or south in three of the plans. The fourth plan would use a runway at Hawthorne Municipal Airport for commuter planes. Depending on the plan, the existing runways would be moved in various directions.

2) TERMINALS: Several new terminals would be added to the west and 12 to 15 gates would be added to Tom Bradley International Terminal. In one plan, existing terminals would be demolished and reconfigured.

3) CARGO: Cargo operations would be reconfigured, moving much of it to land bought by the airport for roughly $20 million on Imperial Highway between Aviation Boulevard and the San Diego Freeway.

4) NEW WESTERN TERMINAL: A large terminal building would be built on the west side of the airport and concourses would be added.

5) PEOPLE MOVER: An automated people mover would link passengers to the terminals and the Green Line.

6) TRAFFIC FLOW: A ring road that circles the airport would connect traffic to the San Diego (405) and Century (105) freeways.

Sources: Los Angeles Department of Airports