Airport Panel Revisits Plans for Palmdale

Four years have passed since Palmdale Airport had a commercial flight. It now sits dormant alongside onion and pistachio farms, on land the city of Los Angeles bought in the 1960s, when there was talk of expanding the airport into a major hub.

Such talk is in the air again.

The Los Angeles Board of Airport Commissioners voted unanimously Tuesday to solicit proposals for a master plan to develop the airport, located within the boundaries of Air Force Plant 42 in north Los Angeles County’s High Desert.

The decision came at the urging of Mayor James K. Hahn, who wants the Palmdale facility to ease the passenger burden on Los Angeles International Airport. LAX and other Southern California airports face a projected 50% growth in annual passenger loads--from 102 million to 157 million--in the next two decades.

Hahn’s office said the goal is to make Palmdale a “regional player” in air transportation, even though the airport never caught on with passengers. Los Angeles World Airports spokesman Paul Haney said a master plan will determine how much traffic a bigger Palmdale Airport could accommodate.

“Nobody in L.A. knows what the heck we’ve got up there,” said Haney, whose agency oversees Palmdale Airport.

The 70-acre facility had the capacity to handle 300,000 passengers annually when flights there ended in 1998--the year United Express stopped its daily shuttles to LAX, saying it wasn’t making money.

Los Angeles World Airports officials and Antelope Valley boosters recently have tried to woo new carriers. They assembled an extensive marketing package that they were planning to pitch to five commuter airlines--on Sept. 11.

The promotional meetings were canceled, and the marketing plan remains on hold, said Jim Ritchie, Los Angeles World Airports deputy executive director for long-range planning. But Palmdale Mayor Jim Ledford said the master plan “will show the possibilities of [the airport] and the growth it can handle.”

The plan will analyze the demand for passenger and cargo service, and examine what effect an expansion would have on the desert environment and freeway traffic. Ritchie said the plan should be completed within three years. Its cost has not been determined.

Hahn’s office estimates that the airport could serve a market of 7 million in the next 20 years. Los Angeles World Airports estimates an annual passenger count of 1.5 million by then. Those numbers will be reevaluated for the master plan, Ritchie said.

LAX tallied 61 million passengers in 2001. Los Angeles World Airports’ other full-service airport, Ontario International, serves 6.7 million passengers per year, but has the capacity to expand to 22 million, agency spokeswoman Maria Tesoro said.

The city owns more than 17,000 acres around the Palmdale site, plenty of room to build a major international airport, Haney said.

But for now, Antelope Valley leaders say they would be content with a commuter airport that will meet local needs.

“There are very few places with 600,000 people not served by an airport,” said David Myers, president of the Greater Antelope Valley Economic Alliance. “Nobody is talking about turning Palmdale into LAX North right now.”

A 2001 marketing study, Myers noted, found that 26 regional businesses generated 125,000 air passengers per year. Most of the businesses surveyed said they would trade low air fares at distant airports for the convenience of Palmdale flights.

Myers said some commuter airlines still want to talk about reestablishing service.

But United Airlines spokesman Alan B. Wayne said there is not enough demand for the carrier to take another risk on Palmdale.