Officials Vow to Pursue Use of Palmdale Airport

Backed by a study showing that demand for air service will grow dramatically in Southern California, Los Angeles airport officials pledged to a skeptical audience Tuesday to pursue development of Palmdale Regional Airport into a significant commercial facility.

Airport managers have already begun talks with an unidentified airline that has expressed interest in providing passenger service at the unused airport, and work on upgrading the vacant 9,000-square-foot terminal building has begun, officials told the Los Angeles City Council in a briefing.

Lydia Kennard, administrator of the city airports department, said she is trying to build on the progress made with the recent announcement that a subsidiary of Swissair would open a maintenance facility at the 17,700-acre city-owned airport.

“We think that’s just the beginning of the development of Palmdale Airport,” she told the council.

However, council members and others were critical of the slow progress at attracting business to the airfield.

“What they have done so far is good, but it’s not nearly enough,” Councilwoman Ruth Galanter said. “They can do a much more aggressive job of marketing the airport. The gist of what we heard today was ‘Don’t hold your breath.’ ”

Galanter, whose district includes Los Angeles International Airport, hopes that developing Palmdale will allow the city to scale back the proposed expansion of LAX.

County Supervisor Mike Antonovich also weighed in, criticizing Los Angeles World Airports for dragging its feet on putting in cargo ramps and doing environmental studies to support development.

“The progress of LAWA in developing Palmdale Airport has been disappointing to say the least,” Antonovich said in a letter read to the council by an aide. “Its actions demonstrate little more than lip service to the work that would be involved in truly making Palmdale a thriving airport.”

Palmdale Mayor Jim Ledford, co-chairman of a working group on development of the airport, admitted that some obstacles remain, including the need to improve freeway and rail access.

But Ledford said he is encouraged by progress so far.

The working group is updating a development plan that would expand the facility from one capable of handling 800,000 passengers per year to one able to handle 8 million.

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A study conducted last year for the city found that Palmdale will not likely become an international gateway or major domestic airport by 2020, but it could become “a significant regional airport and could take on a role of assisting the regional demand for air cargo service and aircraft fleet maintenance.”

To back up the claim that expansion of LAX is necessary, in addition to greater use of Palmdale, Kennard released a report Tuesday warning that Southern California does not have enough air facilities to handle the expected near doubling in demand for passenger service during the next 20 years.