L.A., El Segundo Close In on Deal to Limit Growth at LAX

Los Angeles and El Segundo are close to reaching a legal agreement that would limit growth at Los Angeles International Airport to 78.9 million annual passengers until 2015.

The unusual deal, which would allow a 30% increase from the 61 million travelers LAX expects to handle this year, needs the approval of federal aviation officials and both city councils.

Negotiations have picked up as the L.A. City Council plans its first hearing today on Mayor James K. Hahn’s controversial $11-billion modernization plan for the world’s fifth-busiest airport.

The city has been working for years to cement an accord with El Segundo in hopes that the tiny city south of the airport wouldn’t sue to stop the airport modernization plan.

“An enforceable agreement that effectively constrains LAX to its present capacity would hopefully render any action unnecessary,” Kelly McDowell, El Segundo’s mayor, said Monday.

It remains unclear, however, whether the Federal Aviation Administration would approve such a deal.

El Segundo has opposed the mayor’s proposal, saying it would expose residents to increased noise, traffic and air pollution and fail to redistribute air traffic to the region’s airports.

Representatives of Los Angeles and El Segundo have met in closed-door discussions since June. The talks have included Hahn; Councilwoman Cindy Miscikowski, who represents the airport area; their aides; McDowell; other El Segundo City Council members; and attorneys for both sides. Aides to Hahn and Miscikowski said they are confident an agreement will be reached. McDowell said, “Last Thursday, I was not optimistic. But now I’m optimistic.”

Hahn and Miscikowski announced a compromise airport plan earlier this year that would postpone the most controversial elements of Hahn’s plan to a second phase, subjecting them to a more rigorous review.

The FAA, which would have to approve the deal, was not invited to participate. Also not participating: Los Angeles World Airports, the city’s airport agency; airlines that serve LAX; and the Airport Commission.

Parties close to the negotiations said they hoped to announce a deal before the L.A. council takes its final vote on Hahn’s plan in December.

But even if an agreement is ratified, questions remain about whether it would be legal. Federal officials said federal law prohibits airports from constraining capacity.

“This sounds like it would be illegal and it would not fly,” said Donn Walker, an FAA spokesman. “Airports in general can’t limit the number of annual passengers.”

He added that agency officials won’t be able to make a final judgment until they review the agreement.

Airlines also object to the agreement, saying that they don’t favor decreasing the number of gates under any circumstances.

Under their leases with the city’s airport agency, carriers are charged with maintaining gates where airplanes park and consider them an investment, said Jack Evans, a spokesman for the Air Transport Assn., a major airline trade group.

Evans said the airlines believe Miscikowski’s compromise plan already requires additional review when the number of passengers approaches 78.9 million. “Our sense is that’s adequate to address capacity, if and when that point is reached,” he said.

But El Segundo, Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors and airport-area residents disagree that Miscikowski’s plan contains sufficient safeguards to ensure that LAX doesn’t exceed that number.

Planners agree that is the most the facility could handle because more would result in gridlock of nearby surface streets.

The agreement between Los Angeles and El Segundo would require a review of the mayor’s plan when the airport hits 72 million annual passengers, according to sources familiar with the talks.

At that point, El Segundo and Los Angeles would each use its own formula to figure out how many gates the airport needs to handle no more than 78.9 million annual passengers. Under the deal, Los Angeles would be required to reduce gates, or devise another means to limit capacity, if it approached this number before 2015 or the year that Hahn’s plan is completed, whichever comes later.

Airline analysts questioned how Los Angeles would enforce the cap, saying that limiting the number of gates isn’t going to stop airlines from flying larger jets that accommodate more passengers.

“It sounds to me like it will be very hard to manage and very hard to administer,” said Joe Del Balzo, aviation consultant and former acting head of the Federal Aviation Administration.

Capacity constraints at the nation’s airports are rare.

Long Beach and John Wayne airports have agreements that limit growth; they were allowed in an exception to a 1990 law that restricts how airports can institute flight caps.

Outside California, LaGuardia Airport in New York and Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport both have federally imposed systems that limit the number of flights.

But passenger growth at these facilities continued, although at a slower pace, said Richard Marchi, senior vice president of technical and environmental affairs at Airports Council International, a trade group. Analysts also noted that the limits caused fares at those airports to rise.