LAX Plan to Shift Focus to Security Issues

A controversial $12-billion plan to expand Los Angeles International Airport that had been designed to accommodate more flights must be redrawn to focus primarily on security and safety for the flying public, airport officials said.

Los Angeles World Airports, the city agency that operates LAX, plans to use public recommendations it received on the original 12,000-page plan to rework the document in the wake of the terrorist attacks on the Pentagon and World Trade Center.

Changes are needed to accommodate new federal security rules that have put an entirely new face on travel at LAX--with no skycaps at curbside, private cars eliminated from terminal areas and only ticketed passengers allowed past security checkpoints, officials say.

The airport agency said it is too soon to say exactly which elements of the long-range plan will change. But people who have been fighting for years to limit flights into LAX say they hope the review of the plan will kill many of the most controversial proposed additions, including a road encircling the airport, a new terminal on the facility’s west end and a cargo complex proposed for Manchester Square, east of the airport.

“Clearly the need for expansion has dissipated, if not evaporated,” said Lydia Kennard, executive director of the agency. “But we have an airport that’s functionally obsolete from a security and safety standpoint.”

A steep decline in passengers that has left many planes half empty, and the loss of cash in the airline industry has prompted others to question the need for two other proposals: building a new airport at the former El Toro Marine Corps Air Station in Orange County and directing more flights toward Ontario International Airport.

The new calculations represent a sea change for a region that just weeks ago was grappling with how to accommodate an expected doubling of passengers by 2025. Aviation analysts are now predicting a decline in the number of passengers at LAX and regional airports for at least the next year. Some other officials cautioned, however, that the decrease in air travel could be short-lived and that, within months or years, Southern California could face another crush to accommodate more airliners.

Similar discussions are occurring at airport agencies across the nation, with some facilities backpedaling on million-dollar expansion plans and others putting their proposals in a holding pattern.

“Airports are reevaluating projects and postponing them,” said Alex Zaslov, a manager of economic affairs at the Airport Operators Council International, citing a study completed this week of 31 of America’s large and medium-sized airports.

Regional Approach Still Advocated

In Los Angeles, lawmakers say a push to distribute expected passenger growth among the region’s dozen airports to lighten the load on LAX should continue, but for a new reason. Rather than worry about cutting crowding, travel delays and the impacts of airport noise, they say, officials should work to spread air traffic to other Southern California facilities because of the increased threat of terrorist attacks.

“The cataclysmic drop in passenger usage of planes is not permanent; folks will be back once they’re reassured about aircraft and airport safety,” said Rep. Jane Harman (D-Venice). “I don’t think we want to create one airport that’s a target in Los Angeles. We have a much better opportunity to think about airport security in the context of a regional plan.”

But with the airlines unlikely to add routes at any of the area’s outlying airports any time soon--a hard sell even before the attacks--discussion about airport capacity is likely to focus on LAX.

The airport agency is talking about wholesale revisions in the current master plan--already six years and $65 million in the making--which will probably make it unrecognizable to neighborhood residents and others who oppose expanding the 40-year-old facility.

Airport officials say they started discussing how to revise the plan to reflect about 10,000 suggestions received during a 240-day comment period before Sept. 11. The agency agreed Monday to extend the comment period 45 days at the request of Mayor James K. Hahn. Six hearings canceled because of the attacks have been rescheduled.

In a letter to Kennard, Hahn asked that the agency concentrate specifically on comments it has received that focus on safety and security.

“As you know, I am on record as not supporting expansion of LAX, nor sending to [the] City Council the LAX master plan that was initiated by the previous city administration,” Hahn wrote. “Instead, I suggest immediate attention be focused on giving the people of Los Angeles the safest and most secure airport system in the United States.”

But officials say it will take many months to determine what the final plan will look like.

“It’s too soon to tell which components make sense from a safety and security standpoint,” Kennard said.

Regardless, many agree that the current plan is likely to be scrapped.

“The Riordan master plan is dead,” said Jack Keady, a Playa del Rey-based aviation consultant. “What we’re seeing now is implementation of the Hahn security and safety plan.”

In his letter to Kennard, Hahn called on various groups affected by the LAX master plan to cooperate.

“If we can reach a consensus among the many constituencies of Los Angeles World Airports as to what needs to be done for security and safety, I would like to see the improvements fast-tracked,” the mayor wrote.

Security could prove to be a rallying cry that many politicians find difficult to oppose.

“I want to emphasize we are here to partner with LAX and Hahn on addressing all issues with regard to security and safety,” said El Segundo Mayor Mike Gordon, a leading organizer of expansion opponents.

But Gordon and other expansion foes say they are wary that airport officials may try to increase the size of the airport anyway.

“We don’t want expansion under another name called security,” said Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Los Angeles), whose district includes Inglewood, directly under the airport’s incoming flight path.

Waters, Gordon and other vocal expansion opponents say they will support a revised LAX master plan only if the airport agency agrees to constrain annual passenger capacity to 78 million. About 67 million travelers used the facility last year.

7% Drop in Number of Passengers Seen

LAX isn’t likely to hit 78 million for many years. Analysts predict that the number of passengers could fall as much as 7% this year as a result of the terrorist attacks--a trend that may only start to level out in 2003, they say.

Indeed, anti-airport forces in Orange County say a decline in demand could delay the controversial El Toro proposal. Arguments that there is a critical shortage of flights in the area now ring hollow, they say.

“The passenger projections the supporters started with are inflated. Now the airlines have indicated they are going to cut back flights,” said Laguna Niguel City Councilman Mike Whipple.

But airport proponents disagree, saying that eventually people will start flying again.

David Ellis, a consultant to the Airport Working Group, said the airline industry goes through cycles and was poised for a slump even before the attacks.

“The terrorist activities have caused a crisis in confidence among the traveling public,” he said. “But that confidence level will be reinstated over time, and we’ll be back where we were on Sept. 10, with the need to accommodate an estimated 1.2 billion passengers in the next 10 years.”

Passenger traffic at many of the nation’s busiest airports isn’t expected to regain ground lost since Sept. 11 for a long time, prompting officials at those airports to question the necessity of million-dollar improvements.

At Denver International Airport, officials are revisiting plans for a new hotel complex that would be linked to the facility’s Elrey B. Jeppesen Terminal.

The operator of Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport is holding off on $371 million in improvements, including an effort to revamp the facility’s aging Lindbergh Terminal.

Officials are also delaying renovation of several terminals at George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston.

And at San Francisco International Airport, some capital improvement projects, including refurbishment of the international terminal and some parts of a plan for a controversial new runway, will be deferred until at least February.

Businesses that rely on large airports for their livelihood are also being forced to slow or scale back their expansion plans in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks.

In Ohio, one of the nation’s largest shipping companies, DHL Worldwide Express, has slowed construction on a $270-million sorting facility at Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport, said Ted Bushelman, the airport’s director of communications.

But not all airports are pulling back. Construction projects are proceeding at some, including Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport, where officials are awaiting feedback from the governor’s office about a proposal that would add a runway and relocate three of the current seven runways.

And the $1-billion first phase of an expansion effort at Lambert St. Louis International Airport, where workers started grading the construction site in July, will continue, said Mike Donatt, the airport’s communications manager.

In Los Angeles, the public comment period for LAX’s plan is now set to end Nov. 9.

The rescheduled hearings will be held Oct. 30 at Luminarias restaurant in Monterey Park, Nov. 1 at Peck Park in San Pedro, Nov. 3 at Los Angeles High School, Nov. 5 at Palmdale Regional Airport, Nov. 7 at the Ontario Airport Marriott and Nov. 8 at the Airtel Plaza Hotel in Van Nuys. All are scheduled for 5 to 9 p.m., except the hearing at Los Angeles High, which will be from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.

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Times staff writers Dan Weikel and David Haldane contributed to this report.