LAX to Lower Landing Fees but Raise Levy on Passengers

Los Angeles International Airport decided Tuesday to lower its landing fees, which have risen dramatically since Mayor Richard Riordan took office in 1993.

At the same time, the airport is planning to charge a new $3 per passenger facility fee on each airline ticket to make up the landing fee cutback.

Airport landing fees have been a bone of contention between the airlines and the Riordan administration, to the degree that in 1994 a federal court lawsuit was filed against the city by 70 airlines trying to overturn the increased fees.

Riordan, whose commission nearly quadrupled the fees in one year, said the airport should contribute more money to the city’s general budget to offset some of the city’s costs for fire and police protection at the airport.

In 1993, the fee was 51 cents per 1,000 pounds landed. The fee zoomed to $2.06 by July 1994, at which time the airlines, as members of the Air Transport Assn., filed a lawsuit that was eventually dismissed by U.S. District Judge A. Wallace Tashima. He ruled that the airlines should appeal to the U.S. Department of Transportation for a decision.

That appeal led to a Department of Transportation decision to order the fees’ reduction in 1995 to $1.97.

That rate prevailed until Tuesday, when the airport’s Board of Commissioners voted to roll back the fee to $1.83 per 1,000 pounds. At Ontario International, the landing fee was reduced from $1.29 per 1,000 pounds landed to $1.07.

The reduction means that airlines will save millions of dollars. Under the old fee, an average-weight Boeing 747 paid $1,044 when it landed. Now it will pay $969.

Los Angeles’ landing fees still are still less than those at airports in New York, Denver, Chicago and Boston. But they are higher than those in Houston, San Francisco, Washington and Dallas.

“We are probably seventh or eighth [highest in landing fees] among the 25 largest airports in the United States,” said airport Executive Director John L. Driscoll.

The landing fees were reduced because the airport anticipates collecting $75 million a year in passenger facility charges once the $3 per ticket fee is approved by the Federal Aviation Administration, said Karen Sisson, the airport’s chief financial officer.

The charges will be used to pay for the airport’s program designed to soundproof residential homes near the airport. Previously, noise mitigation money came from the landing fees.

Airline officials said they were pleased to hear about the reduction in landing fees, but none would say whether they planned to pass the savings on to customers.

“From my perspective, it is a step in the right direction,” said John Ek, western regional director for the Air Transport Assn., which represents the nation’s major airlines. “This is the way this city should strive to run, getting the most they can for the lowest cost.”

United Airlines spokesman Alan Wayne said: “Every bit helps and we welcome it.”