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LAX Neighbors Have No Say in Expansion

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Why is it reasonable to expand LAX (89 million planned vs. 64 million current passengers per year) when El Toro will pick up only 14 million passengers and underused John Wayne will expand by only 1.5 million [“Airport Needs Clear; Outcome Foggy,” James Flanigan on Southern California, Dec. 7].

Why will we in the communities surrounding LAX be burdened with the majority of the Southern California air transport growth, while Orange County demands minimum impact? It’s because of the prevailing NIMBY attitude, combined with the fact that people there have more money, and therefore more influence, than the less wealthy neighbors of LAX.

PETER BROUSSINOS

Hermosa Beach

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James Flanigan says that because regional air travel demand will grow from 98 million airline passengers annually to 180 million by 2020, a new 14 million-passenger airport at El Toro is needed. The bulk of this regional growth will be in the Inland Empire, nearest Ontario and March airports.

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New regional airport capacity is needed in the Inland Empire, not in south Orange County. Why force millions of new Inland Empire passengers to travel to Orange County, over already overburdened ground transportation corridors?

MICHAEL SMITH

Mission Viejo

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Poor Mr. Flanigan; it appears he makes his living telling us what is going to happen in the future of Southern California business and his crystal ball has developed a crack.

For his information, there will be no commercial airport at El Toro this decade, or ever. Period. How do I know this? Sixty-seven-plus percent of the voters of Orange County have said so--that’s how I know. It is totally irrational to expect the residents of a fully developed urban area to accept addition of a commercial airport the size of San Francisco International, operating 24 hours a day, put down smack-dab in the middle of their lives.

It ain’t gonna happen, Mr. Flanigan, so you’d best reshape your view of the airport situation in the entire area if an airport at El Toro is necessary to make it all fit together.

JACK WEBER

Irvine

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