New Clarity About LAX

So few people spoke at last week’s final round of hearings on the plan to expand Los Angeles International Airport that a martial arts expert had time to demonstrate techniques for foiling a hijacker. The scene was a perfect metaphor for the quandary facing airports across the country, including LAX.

LAX was already on its way to shelving expansion plans before the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. The expansion opponents who packed public hearings had fought the plan to a standstill. Now Los Angeles Mayor James K. Hahn, who had been sympathetic to foes of expansion, is calling for a new plan that rightly emphasizes security. Like the jujitsu instructor, he knows that unless the public regains its faith in the safety of air travel there will be no need to expand.

The last big drop in air travel came during the Gulf War and lasted about 10 months. But no one has ever seen a drop like this--or a disaster like that of Sept. 11. How soon or even whether recovery will come is an unknown.

Congress on Friday approved a sweeping reform bill that puts airport screening under federal control and requires screening of all baggage, including checked bags, by 2002. What Los Angeles must do is design an airport that can accommodate increased security while easing bottlenecks and delays. Business leaders complain that security at LAX has become so cumbersome it deters flying as much as passenger anxiety does. They shouldn’t be surprised. In a recent survey, LAX ranked 14th among the nation’s 16 largest airports in passenger convenience, and that was before Sept. 11. Why should it be any better now?

Besides making LAX more secure and friendlier, the new plan must increase aviation safety. Hahn spoke of the need to reconfigure runways to improve the airport’s abysmal record of near collisions, the worst in the country. Foes of expansion fought a similar proposal in the previous plan because they saw it as a ploy to attract a new generation of larger planes. That was inexplicable, and not just for safety reasons. Each generation of new planes has been quieter than the one before. And planes that can carry more passengers could mean fewer takeoffs and landings, not more.

Coming up with a new plan is a daunting enough task given the uncertainty in the airline industry, which, not incidentally, would have paid a good share of the earlier expansion plan. Hahn will also have to convince die-hard opponents that doing nothing is not an option. Modernizing the airport is critical not only to the industry’s economic recovery but to the city’s.