Long Beach Airport May Add Flights Despite Noise Limits

Under pressure from American Airlines and others, Long Beach Airport officials have agreed to consider increasing the number of flights allowed at the freeway-adjacent facility to accommodate requests by carriers to start service there.

Earlier this year, American Airlines requested four permanent daily “slots” at the airport for flights to New York and Chicago. The company started selling tickets for these flights in March--even before officials agreed to make room for the extra planes. American will start flying these routes June 15 using temporary slots.

The airline, which has threatened to sue if it does not receive permanent slots, asserted in a paper submitted to the city this week that the airport’s agreement to provide JetBlue with exclusive two-year use of 27 slots violates federal and state law. Nineteen slots are currently in use at the airport, with the others held for flights to be added later.

Space at the 79-year-old facility is scarce because of a noise compatibility ordinance that limits the number of commercial takeoffs to 41 per day. But this number could grow because today’s aircraft are quieter and the types of aircraft that use the airport have changed since noise restrictions were devised 13 years ago.

Pressure on all of Southern California’s airports to expand is intense, and was made more so last month by the U.S. Navy’s decision to turn over the former El Toro Marine Corps Air Station to Irvine, which intends to develop the area for housing and parks, among other things.

“Is there the possibility we could fly some additional flights and still stay within our noise budget?” asked Sharon Diggs-Jackson, the facility’s public affairs officer. “Yes. But when we make the change and how many flights we add would need to be determined.”

The city is reviewing whether it should take a noise measurement now based on traffic projections provided by airlines that use the airport, or wait until it reaches the 41-flight limit and then determine the actual noise levels.

The airport’s manager, Chris Kunze, is considering increasing the number of flights at the airport as part of an appeals process requested by American--which currently offers four daily flights from Long Beach to Dallas.

American demanded an administrative hearing after the city said it could offer only temporary slots, which would expire in four months. Alaska Airlines, which requested three slots to start service to Seattle in September, has also requested a hearing.

The American appeals process began Monday when the carrier met with Long Beach officials and gave them a document in which it alleges that the airport’s exclusive agreement with JetBlue puts other carriers at a competitive disadvantage.

Kunze has 10 business days to render a decision. If American is not satisfied with his response, the carrier can appeal to Long Beach City Manager Henry Taboada.

In the document, American alleges that the JetBlue “agreement was shrouded in secrecy, and at JetBlue’s insistence not offered to any other carrier. The city simply acquiesced to JetBlue’s desire to freeze out all competition.”

In an interview Wednesday at Long Beach Airport, JetBlue Chief Executive David Neeleman was emphatic that his company--known for low fares and its blue and white Airbus A320s with leather seats and satellite TV monitors--will use all of its slots.

“There’s absolutely no doubt in our minds that we will have 27 daily flights out of here by next May,” he said.

Neeleman traveled to the Long Beach Airport on Wednesday to inaugurate two daily flights to Washington, D.C. The company also has three daily nonstop flights to New York’s John F. Kennedy Airport and plans to add another to that city in June. Since the carrier began service at the airport last summer, passenger traffic has climbed 41%.

Neeleman added that American had the opportunity to apply for the 27 slots after the Long Beach City Council passed an ordinance in May 2001 extending the time limit for when airlines can use slots at the airport from six months to two years.

“We applied for these slots fair and square,” he said. “All they’re going to do is fly to places we’re going to fly to. It’s always been the big guys’ feeling that if they match our fares, people would go on them. But that’s not going to happen. We’ve built this airline to last.”