Officials Drop 2 of 4 Expansion Plans for LAX

Local officials Tuesday dropped two of the four plans that they were considering as part of a controversial expansion of Los Angeles International Airport.

Airport officials are no longer thinking of taking over the Hawthorne Municipal Airport for commuter airline traffic.

They also have dropped consideration of a new commuter runway that would have jutted west across Pershing Drive near Playa del Rey and been next to the habitat of the endangered El Segundo blue butterfly.

That leaves two possible concepts on the table. One envisions an additional commuter airline runway to the north near Playa del Rey, but east of Pershing Drive. Another concept adds two commuter airline runways--one to the northwest and one to the southeast of the main terminal.

The announcement comes more than a year after acrimonious public hearings on a master plan that would allow the airport to accommodate 40 million more passengers a year and double air cargo shipments by 2015. The expansion is designed to keep the airport competitive with other West Coast airports and position it for the city’s expanding role in Pacific Rim commerce.

“In the end, it made better operational and economic sense to eliminate these two concepts,” said John J. Driscoll, executive director of Los Angeles World Airports, which governs Los Angeles International Airport and facilities in Van Nuys, Ontario and Palmdale.

The announcement did little to mollify critics of the expansion efforts, particularly Rep. Jane Harman (D-Torrance) and Los Angeles City Councilwoman Ruth Galanter, whose 6th District includes the airport and several nearby communities.

Both lawmakers said they were frustrated that the airport commissioners continue to consider expanding the airport instead of looking at facilities in Ontario and Palmdale.