LAX Ban on Cars to Remain

Officials at Los Angeles International Airport moved Monday to extend a ban on private vehicles and short-term parking near airline terminals, signaling that security measures at the nation’s third busiest airport will remain in place indefinitely for the long haul.

Police patrols also remained at double their normal level, as the airport entered its first full business week since the East Coast terrorist attacks. The increased security and the reduced revenue from short-term parking lots are costing the city agency that runs LAX about $1 million a day.

The restricted access, including a prohibition on family and friends in departure areas, has taken a heavy toll on businesses inside the airport. Those lost customers and reduced loads on many airplanes could lead to the laying off of as many as 10,000 airport and airline employees, according to managers of the city agency that runs LAX.

Despite prospects for a long, cold winter of lost jobs, sinking revenues and inconvenience, there were signs of resilience at the giant facility. LAX accommodated about 80% of the normal volume of takeoffs and arrivals on Monday. At times, the Bradley International Terminal was jammed with passengers, who gazed up at a full board of departure information and filled every table in the food court. And, while the city’s airport agency may be losing money, it has cash reserves in excess of $200 million. Officials said they are confident that the facility won’t wind up in the red.

Travelers will have to prepare themselves for long-term changes at the airport, exemplified by the elimination of private cars from the two-level loop road that serves the airports’ eight central terminals.

Any hope by consumers that they would soon be allowed to drive on to the airport grounds was quashed over the weekend. Workers began clearing a new parking lot east of the airport that will serve as a depot for departing passengers.

The former rental car lot at 9011 Airport Blvd. has been cleared of trash. More than 40 workers scrambled to erect lights and signs and to paint markings on the pavement. The lot is scheduled to open early today.

Friends and relatives will drop off passengers there, and the passengers will then be taken to the airport terminal by shuttle bus and taxis. In an attempt to reduce crowding and confusion, LAX officials have reserved Lot B--between the airport and the San Diego Freeway (Interstate 405)--for all passenger pickups.

Top managers of LAX said the ban on private cars, a more stringent precaution than at many other airports, is necessary because the facility has been specifically targeted for past terrorist attacks. In addition, the Federal Aviation Administration has ordered a “safe zone” roughly a football field wide where private vehicles are not allowed to park.

With the safe zone in place, 7,000 short-term parking spaces near terminals must be closed. That’s about half the total inventory of all parking near the terminals--leaving airport drivers with few options but to double and triple park at the curb.

Some Businesses Vow Fight on Vehicle Ban

Airport managers, including Executive Director Lydia Kennard, believed that a flood of private vehicles with few places to park could gridlock the loop road. That, in turn, could make it impossible for emergency vehicles to navigate around the airport, exposing the public to additional risk.

Airport managers have briefed Los Angeles Mayor James K. Hahn’s seven-member Airport Commission about the decision to ban private cars, motorcycles and trucks. So far, the panel has not asked to review the decision, or any others regarding airport security.

But many business interests, including some airlines, made it clear that they will fight the ban on private vehicles. United and Southwest airlines have already asked LAX to reopen the loop to customers.

Officials at Los Angeles World Airports, the city agency that runs LAX, said they might move even further to institutionalize off-airport drop-offs and pickups; they are researching additional remote facilities for passengers to arrive and disembark.

The challenging new world of airport operations was in evidence elsewhere around LAX on Monday, as well:

* Airport security officials amassed a glimmering pile of 15,000 objects that seemed so innocuous just a week ago: tweezers, umbrellas, corkscrews, pencil sharpeners and nail clippers seized over the last five days from passengers.

* A central commissary under the airport Theme Restaurant has become the central locale for cutting any food items. With no knives allowed in terminals, bartenders can no longer even slice a lemon with a paring knife.

The myriad changes at LAX prompted many travelers to drive to such destinations as San Francisco and Las Vegas. The loss of commuter fliers left normally teeming concourses and restaurants in Terminal 1 mostly vacant. At Terminal 4, where American Airlines flights take off and land, there were few customers and counters were closed.

Some restaurants reported a 60% drop in revenues, while some duty-free shops have seen sales fall 20%.

Financial woes have already begun hitting ancillary workers at LAX.

At Gate Gourmet, which provides in-flight meals to airlines, about 20% of the work force was cut last week, said driver Louis Ramos, who’s worked there for a decade. That’s 100 out of the 500 workers in his unit. The remaining employees, who earn from $6.50 to $14 an hour, have all but given up on their recent campaign for a $2-per-hour raise over three years.

“It took me a long time to get this job,” said Luis H. Vasquez, in his first month as an LAX skycap. “Who knows how long I’ll keep it.”

Said Paul Haney, an airport spokesman: “We’re figuring out how to make this thing work for the long term.”

Some passengers have already figured out a way: They’re avoiding the issue altogether by heading for the region’s other airports.

Trish Kraus, a Laguna Beach resident, flew into LAX on Sunday from Dublin, Ireland. It took her five hours from the time she landed to leave the airport, an odyssey that ended only after she paid a taxi driver $20 to drive her around until she located her family.

On Monday, when it came time to put her daughter on a plane to Boston, there was no way she was going back, she said. Her daughter Erin, a sophomore at Northeastern University, ditched her LAX ticket and bought a new one at the last minute--this time, leaving from Orange County’s John Wayne Airport.

Like all major airports in the country, John Wayne will have some additional security restrictions, and officials anticipate some delays. But compared to LAX, Trish Kraus said, “this is a piece of cake.”

“It’s ridiculous up there,” 19-year-old Erin said of LAX. “I wanted to avoid it at all costs.”

Flights, Convenience to Affect Airports

Cuts in passenger load at Southern California airports will be determined primarily by the number of flights that major carriers eliminate. But convenience--or the lack thereof--will also contribute to the viability of the economies centered at each airport in the region.

At Ontario International Airport east of Los Angeles, officials say they won’t know until they get data from October whether the security restrictions and other changes at LAX will have an effect on their passenger load.

But they say a tide of travelers looking for new options is possible.

“The business people, they already know where the airports are in Southern California. It’s not going to make much of a difference with those people,” said Ontario International spokesman Dennis Watson.

“But someone may learn about Ontario Airport from a friend. If they live in Covina, or Whittier, or Downey, somewhere that’s halfway between, and would have kept going to LAX--this just might be the kind of incentive that would get them to try another airport.”

Still, some in the nation’s air transportation establishment were determined to return conditions to normal. And soon.

At Dulles International Airport in suburban Washington, an American Airlines cockpit crew member struck a defiant tone while addressing hundreds of passengers lined up in a ticketing lounge.

“This is our country. These are our aircraft. These are our skies,” First Officer Rich Williams, proclaimed loudly while colleagues held a five-foot-wide American flag nearby. “And we’re taking them back.”

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Times staff writers Nancy Cleeland, David Willman, Geoffrey Mohan, Evelyn Larrubia and Christine Hanley contributed to this story.