Official eyes a regional air plan

Mark R. Madler

When the first commercial flight in six years took off from Palmdale

late last month, among those present was a county official who saw

the occasion as one that could bring a change in air travel to the

metro Los Angeles area.

“It was a great sight to see,” Los Angeles County Supervisor

Michael Antonovich said. “We had clouds and rain in the community but

it was pure sunshine with that flight.”

If Antonovich had his way, there would be more commercial flights

out of Palmdale to relieve the number of flights and prevent

expansion at Los Angeles International Airport.

Palmdale, operated by the Los Angeles Board of Airport

Commissioners, is primarily used for military aircraft. Palmdale

Airport officials suspended commercial flights there in January 1998.

The airport has a 9,000-square-foot terminal and 17,000 acres of

undeveloped land.

It’s that open space around the Palmdale airport that separates it

from the Bob Hope Airport, where there is little to no room for

expansion. Burbank City Councilman Todd Campbell recognized that open

space provides a buffer zone.

“Burbank is landlocked,” Campbell said. “That airport will remain

a community airport.”

Antonovich agreed, saying that in the region-wide picture Bob Hope

Airport will continue to provide the type of service it is now due to

a lack of building new runways or expanding existing ones.

“In the future, the airport is operating at the capacity it is

now,” Antonovich said. “There are no restrictions at Ontario and

Palmdale.”

Burbank-Glendale-Pasadena Airport Authority President Charlie

Lombardo casts a skeptical eye on the suggestion of regional airport

planning, especially in terms of potentially taking control out of

local hands.

And yet, regional planning would be good if it would take pressure

off of Bob Hope Airport, Lombardo said.

“We are a nice little regional airport,” Lombardo added. “But

someone else deciding your future is not a good thing.”

Still, Antonovich sees a regional air travel plan as a viable

option because the infrastructure around LAX cannot sustain more

passengers and expansion would create more gridlock and pollution.

A 2001 study commissioned by the board of supervisors found that

the Antelope Valley could support an airport and when fully

operational would generate up to $65 million in revenues, Antonovich

said.

“It makes no sense for someone from the Antelope Valley to go to

LAX, just as it makes no sense for someone to go from Inglewood to

Palmdale, to catch a plane,” Antonovich said.