Expand Palmdale Regional Airport, Not LAX

There has been considerable controversy over the proposed expansion of Los Angeles International Airport. Earlier this year, Mayor Richard Riordan came to Washington to promote this plan, which he says is necessary to sustain Los Angeles’ economic growth into the 21st century.

Unfortunately, that argument misses the point. And it misses the best opportunity to accomplish something that would benefit all of Los Angeles: expanding Palmdale Regional Airport into a full-service commercial facility.

As I told Riordan when he met with the California Republican delegation, the question is how you frame the issue. If you limit the issue to whether or not LAX should expand in order to promote economic growth, or whether we should allow Los Angeles to lose its competitive edge, then the answer would obviously be expansion.

But the more important question is: What is the best way to meet the demand for air travel in the entire Southern California region while getting the most out of taxpayers’ limited funds and avoiding the creation of additional traffic congestion at LAX?

When the issue is seen in that light, then it’s obvious that expanding Palmdale is the better choice.

Los Angeles World Airports proposes to use up to $12 billion to expand an airport in a part of Los Angeles where there is already intense traffic congestion, high land values and significant political opposition to expansion.

The $12 billion would go a lot further in Palmdale. Los Angeles World Airports (formerly the Los Angeles Department of Airports) already owns 17,000 acres of land in Palmdale, which it purchased in the 1960s as part of a far-sighted planning strategy.

Although a small Palmdale air terminal was opened in the 1970s, using the Air Plant 42 runways, it has foundered due to lack of passenger demand.

The reason given by detractors is that Palmdale is too far away from Los Angeles to attract L.A.-area residents. That may be the perception, but it’s not reality.

The problem is two-fold. One is that most flights offered out of Palmdale have been commuter flights to LAX. This is convenient for Antelope Valley residents, but offers nothing to San Fernando Valley travelers, who (quite rightly) don’t see the point of driving an hour to Palmdale to take a half-hour flight to LAX.

If flights to national and international destinations were offered out of Palmdale, this would change.

The other problem is related: Los Angeles World Airports has never really aggressively promoted and advertised Palmdale Regional Airport.

If more Southern California residents were made aware that driving to Palmdale usually takes less time than fighting L.A. traffic to LAX, they would use Palmdale.

To get to LAX from the Valley, you must fight San Diego Freeway traffic, which is bad almost any time of the day. Then you have to park in a long-term lot and shuttle to the terminal itself.

From the time you leave your home to the time you reach the ticket counter, you have spent well over an hour in frustrating traffic and waiting around in a parking lot. Plus you have the expense of the long-term parking.

By contrast, going to Palmdale Regional Airport means taking the comparatively uncrowded Antelope Valley Freeway for about an hour, then parking in a free lot that is about 100 feet from the air terminal. It’s quick and convenient.

In addition, the commute to Palmdale will be made a lot quicker if a bullet train--now being considered by a state commission--connected Los Angeles to Palmdale.

The $12 billion that is being contemplated for LAX would be much better spent to build the bullet train and fund an advertising campaign for Palmdale. The Palmdale Regional Airport needs to become the primary component of the LAX Master Plan.