Airlines Fight LAX Plan

With city officials preparing this week to unveil a multibillion-dollar plan to revamp Los Angeles International Airport, airlines are urging City Council members to reject the proposal, citing what they say are questionable benefits to security and ongoing financial problems that would make it difficult for them to foot the bill.

In recent briefings with half a dozen Los Angeles City Council members, a group representing carriers that do business at LAX proposed a smaller renovation project. That plan, they said, would make more economic sense than Mayor James K. Hahn’s $9.6-billion proposal to modernize the world’s fifth-busiest airport.

“No one can predict the future of the airline industry or how many passengers will be flying over the next few years,” the carriers wrote in a position paper obtained by The Times. “With this uncertainty, it is inappropriate for the city of Los Angeles to now embark on a massive, risky and expensive project with questionable benefits.”

Instead, the carriers suggested that Hahn focus on moving two parallel runways on the south side of the airfield farther apart. So far this year, LAX has logged seven near misses on these runways, which are so close together that they violate Federal Aviation Administration standards.

That proposal would enhance safety, they said, and would be cheaper than the plan Hahn is preparing to release.

City Councilwoman Cindy Miscikowski, whose district includes the airport, said the airlines have raised legitimate questions that Hahn needs to answer. Environmental and economic studies of his plan are scheduled to be released Wednesday. Hahn has proposed creating a 45-day public comment period.

Although some airlines have begun lobbying council members, the group that raised the recent objections does not represent the views of all the carriers that operate out of LAX. Others have not yet weighed in on the plan.

Consultants hired to complete the studies of Hahn’s modernization proposal found that it would have “significant and unavoidable” environmental effects on traffic, air quality, schools and noise levels for surrounding properties, according to a summary of the plan.

The briefings between carriers and select council members represent escalating opposition in the airline industry to Hahn’s plan, which would dramatically alter the airfield, ban traffic in the central terminal area and rely on an elevated train to link LAX with new facilities to the east.

Airline officials first voiced their concerns with the mayor’s plan last fall in a strongly worded letter to Los Angeles World Airports, the city’s airport agency. By meeting with council members, the airlines are taking their concerns to the next level.

The council will ultimately be asked to choose among five alternatives to revamp LAX. They are: Hahn’s plan, which the mayor says emphasizes security and safety; three expansion alternatives devised by Hahn’s predecessor, Richard Riordan; and a no-project option, effectively leaving the airport as it is.

For Hahn, the support of the airlines is important politically and practically. The carriers would be asked to shoulder half the plan’s cost through higher landing fees and terminal leases. They also have lobbying power in Washington, where the FAA’s approval of the proposal would be needed.

The carriers’ alternative would include several elements of the mayor’s plan, such as moving the outer runway on the south side of the airfield 50 feet closer to El Segundo and building a taxiway between the parallel runways on the south side.