FYI.....
Published Monday, April 23, 2007, by the Sacramento Bee
Column
Big-city airports near limit
By Dan Walters
Bee Columnist
California sorely neglected infrastructure investment decade after
decade -- with congested highways, deteriorating and overcrowded
schools, and overused parks among the consequences -- but the state's
locally operated airports were a shining exception.
With revenues generated from ever-increasing airline flights, local
airport authorities busily added runways and terminals during the
1980s and 1990s. Traffic soared past 150 million passengers a year in
the early 1990s and was nearing 180 million when the Sept. 11, 2001,
terrorist attacks put a damper on Americans' willingness to fly.
The dot-com meltdown contributed to the decline. Between 2001 and
2003, California air travel plummeted by nearly 20 million passengers
a year. But as the economy recovered and travelers' fears lessened,
it revived and by 2005 had rebounded to pre-2001 levels. Moreover,
as the state's population and economy continue to grow, and as its
position as the gateway to the Pacific Rim expands, every
transportation planning agency expects that demand for air service
also will expand.
However, even as the state finally begins making multibillion-dollar
investments in new highways and other critical infrastructure, its
big-city airports face a looming crisis of capacity. Airport
expansion plans have fallen by the wayside in San Diego, Orange
County, Los Angeles and San Francisco, felled by local opposition,
environmental restrictions and other factors.
San Diego's dilemma typifies the situation. While its waterfront
airport, Lindbergh Field, is convenient for travelers, a single
runway and noise restrictions mean that Lindbergh is rapidly reaching
the saturation point. The city has been seeking an alternative for at
least 60 years and created a powerful government entity to resolve
the dilemma. But when a new airport commission proposed an airport on
Miramar Mesa, the site of a Marine Corps air base, it was rejected by
the military and two-thirds of voters. That leaves San Diego where it
has been for decades, with an airport that will soon reach its
absolute capacity.
Once-ambitious plans for expanding Los Angeles International have
been scaled back to near-zero, due to local opposition, and Mayor
Antonio Villaraigosa wants to concentrate international flights at
LAX and depend on satellites, particularly Ontario International and
an underused airport at Palmdale, to shoulder the domestic load.
Ontario has added two new terminals in recent years, with plans for
at least two more, and has become a major freight hub, while the city
is trying to jump-start Palmdale by heavily subsidizing flights to
and from San Francisco. Millions of local and federal funds have been
pumped into the former Norton AFB near San Bernardino to convert it
into a full-service airport, but its proximity to Ontario make its
future iffy.
Los Angeles' emphasis on Ontario and Palmdale indicate the direction
that air travel is taking -- inland. With coastal airports already
congested and unable to expand, inland facilities will handle an ever-
greater share of the traffic. While LAX is still well shy of its pre-
2001 passenger load, for instance, Ontario is handling a half-million
more passengers annually than it was in 2000. And while San Francisco
International is 20 percent off its pre-2001 high and San Jose
International is down 17 percent, Sacramento International is 25
percent higher and planning for much more.
This diffusion of air travel, which mirrors trends in employment
and population, has an interconnectivity problem, however. If, for
instance, LAX concentrates on international service, how do
international travelers, both incoming and outgoing, connect with
domestic flights at Ontario or Palmdale? [BATN: high-speed rail]
Reach Dan Walters at (916) 321-1195 or
dwalters@sacbee.com