Fixes Big and Small at LAX

Mayor James K. Hahn has promised to remake Los Angeles International Airport into the nation’s safest. It’s going to take some fast and creative thinking by city and airport officials on how to do it and how to finance it.

Not that LAX lacks for guidance on what needs doing. In November Congress passed an aviation security bill setting a mid-January deadline for airports either to screen all checked baggage by hand, X-ray or bomb-sniffing dog or to match bags to passengers. By the end of next year, they must use state-of-the-art bomb-detection machines.

LAX now has 13 of the truck-sized machines. It will need 107 more. The problem is where to put them. The newly passed aviation security bill also calls for more thorough screening of passengers and hand-carried luggage. To keep LAX from total gridlock, that means additional checkpoints. But where?

What is missing at LAX and other airports built for less security-conscious times is the space to carry out these requirements. Los Angeles’ aging airport is cramped and in need of modernization. The drop in passengers since Sept. 11 makes it less crowded for now but doesn’t change basic design flaws.

LAX remains the world’s third-busiest airport (after Atlanta and Chicago) and leads in the number of passengers arriving or departing rather than transferring to another plane. That means all the more luggage to handle--and screen.

Hahn envisions a new building, blocks from the airport, where passengers will check in, have their luggage screened and then take secure, high-speed transit to the terminal. It’s an intriguing idea, but it’s not even on paper yet and can’t be built in time to meet the Dec. 31, 2002, deadline to install the high-tech screeners.

One airline has floated the idea of taking over part of the parking structure for screening. Others have suggested a temporary limit on both carry-on and checked baggage. Neither of these plans would be popular with a traveling public that for years has put convenience over security. But priorities have changed, and adjustments by passengers will have to follow.

The city’s second conundrum is paying for new security. A drop in landing, concession and parking revenues and increased security have cost LAX millions. If the federal government is going to help out, Los Angeles needs to get in line. But first it needs to drop a city ban on accepting federal airport grants.

Former Mayor Richard Riordan and his airport commissioners imposed the ban in 1993 to avoid restrictions on diverting airport revenues to non-airport uses. The scheme led to a decade of court battles between the airport and the airlines and cost LAX more than $117 million in lost grants. An economic task force appointed by Hahn recommends dropping the ban, and the mayor shouldn’t hesitate. If only other airport decisions were so clear.