Some Skycaps Back at LAX; Private Vehicles May Be Next

Skycaps returned to many sidewalks and travelers were dropping off their bags again at some curbsides for the first time in nearly three weeks Monday, as Los Angeles International Airport continued its halting march to a new equilibrium.

Safety restrictions put in place after the East Coast terrorist attacks could be loosened further today, when the city’s Airport Commission will consider lifting its controversial ban on private vehicles on the horseshoe-shaped roadway that passes the airport’s nine terminals.

In deciding whether to allow private cars and trucks back in the terminal area, city officials are facing considerable pressure from unions whose members have lost jobs at LAX and the revelation Monday that the facility’s bond rating could be downgraded because of parking and concession revenue lost since Sept. 11. A lower bond rating could greatly drive up the cost of borrowing money for airport improvements.

Today’s meeting at the airport comes amid almost daily adjustments of security at LAX and other developments, including:

* Airport officials acknowledged that the facility has lost $20 million since the terrorist attacks. About half that shortfall is the result of the deployment of extra police officers, with the other half from lost parking revenue, landing fees and concession payments.

* Gov. Gray Davis signed legislation at an LAX news conference that will increase benefits paid to unemployed workers for the first time in nearly a decade--raising rates from $230 to $450 by 2005.

The governor added that airline and airport employees will be helped immediately, because he already has signed an executive order exempting them from a one-week waiting period for unemployment assistance.

* Davis also announced that the first National Guard troops to assist in airport security will appear at LAX this weekend. He said the troops will receive training from the FAA and be stationed at security checkpoints.

* Skycaps began to reappear in front of some LAX terminals, after the Federal Aviation Administration’s lifting of a ban Friday on curbside baggage check-in. A full contingent of skycaps was working the sidewalk outside the USAir, American and Trans World Airlines terminals, while other large carriers like United and Southwest said they expected to resume curbside baggage service later in the week.

* Los Angeles Police Chief Bernard C. Parks dismissed a proposal by the Los Angeles police union for off-duty police officers to carry firearms on airplanes. In a meeting with Times reporters and editors, Parks said the policy could lead to dangerous misunderstandings among officers from various law enforcement agencies.

The ban on private vehicle traffic near the airport’s terminals has remained the single most striking change in LAX operations for the general public.

The city agency that operates the airport imposed the ban when the airport reopened Sept. 14, citing an FAA rule that prohibits cars from parking within 300 feet of the curb. Half of the spaces in the airport’s parking structures fall within this limit. Airport officials said it would be difficult to keep traffic moving, with most short-term parking eliminated.

In defending a driving ban that is more restrictive than most other airports, officials also said that they were being extremely careful because LAX has been a target of terrorist threats, even before last month’s attacks.

Airport officials could use a waiver they expect to receive this week from the FAA that would allow private cars to park in airport structures within the 300-foot limit. In applying for the waiver, the agency submitted results from a bomb blast analysis that demonstrated the strength of the facility’s parking structures.

Mayor James K. Hahn asked the commission to review the parking and driving ban and to provide his seven-member Airport Commission with options to allow cars back on the airport. Hahn said he was concerned about hundreds of employees laid off as a result of the move.

But lifting the parking ban won’t prove to be easy for commissioners, who have to marry the concerns of inconvenienced passengers and furloughed employees with new FAA security procedures.

The reopening to private cars would likely require, for example, a hyper-vigilance to unattended vehicles. One FAA procedure requires the airport to evacuate everyone within the immediate vicinity of any empty vehicle at the curb. That means clearing out people even on the roadway above or below the abandoned vehicle.

In the past, travelers routinely left their cars and scrambled inside terminals after bags or loved ones. Their vehicles simply were towed. But the new rules would require a much more complicated and time-consuming evacuation.

Another option before the Airport Commission may be to allow private cars near the terminals, but to require that they be searched before they are allowed into parking structures. That procedure has already been imposed at several other airports.

Even if officials choose to lift the ban, the airport agency plans to retain a new passenger drop-off facility opened a few weeks ago on Airport Boulevard. This facility, which has been able to move most travelers smoothly to the terminals, may be converted to allow people to both drop off and pick up passengers, airport officials said.

Although airport officials insist that safety will remain their preeminent concern, the economic health of the facility is also of increasing urgency.

In a decision it said was prompted in part by a drop in parking revenue caused by the parking ban, Moody’s Investors Service placed LAX’s $232-million bond debt on a watch list for a possible rating downgrade, said Moody’s senior vice president Adam Whiteman. Other major airports are likely to join LAX on the list later in the week, he said.

The decision could make it more costly for airport officials to borrow money for airport improvements. A $12-billion expansion and renovation plan for LAX is pending.

Davis said in announcing the new unemployment package that he hopes the effects will be felt at LAX and well beyond. The legislation sponsored by Sen. Richard Alarcon (D-Sylmar) increases the current maximum weekly benefit of $230 to $330 in 2002, to $370 in 2003, to $410 in 2004 and to $450 by 2005.

“This bill will provide a safety net for those suffering the ill effects from the softening of our economy,” said Davis, who stood on the podium with Rep. Jane Harman (D-Redondo Beach) and Alarcon. “But our immediate concern is those affected by the terrorist acts on Sept. 11.”

Alarcon said the increases are possible because “the unemployment benefits fund is bursting. This will put $1.2 billion back into the economy at a time we really need it . . . and ensure that the workers of California are protected during their toughest times.”

The return of curbside baggage service and the familiar uniformed skycaps lent an air of normality to some parts of LAX Monday.

“We are happy to be back at work again,” said Muhammad Intiaz, a skycap who works for a company hired by Continental Airlines.

But in a sign of the times, Intiaz pointed to a long line of passengers waiting to check their bags at the Continental ticket counter inside. “Right now,” Intiaz said, “I’m a little worried people don’t know we’ve returned.”

Some airlines were still working to comply with FAA requirements that they install a passenger-screening program on computers, used by skycaps to check in baggage at the curb. Until that program has been installed, they will not be permitted to check luggage at the curb.

“We have not reinstated skycaps at any of our airports,” said Peggy Estes, a spokeswoman for Delta Air Lines. “We are updating our software, and they will be back at some locations, but we don’t know exactly when.”

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Times staff writers Matea Gold and Lee Romney contributed to this story.