LAX officials raked over coals at L.A. Council committee meeting

Report from Denny Schneider, President of ARSAC from today's meeting of the L.A. City Council's Commerce, Trade and Tourism Committee. ARSAC, the Alliance for a Regional Solution for Airport Congestion, is one of four groups that sued over the LAX Master Plan.


Agenda item three was for LAWA to present the status of LAX improvement projects and the redesign efforts. Both Chairwoman Councilmember Janice Hahn and our Councilmember BILL ROSENDAHL were both emphatic that LAX improvement must accommodate both immediate and future aircraft operational demands and that LAWA action has been untimely at best. Both ARE WORKING TO STOP THE RUMOR MILL THAT "MODERNIZATION" PLANS MUST INCLUDE EXPANSION. THEY ALSO SAID THAT DESTRUCTION OF NEIGHBORING COMMUNITIES WILL NOT BE TOLERATED. The two Council members assailed LAWA over and over for not having moved forward on the "Green Light" projects that were approved in the Settlement Agreement one and a half years ago. The bottom line is that LAWA hasn't gotten very far in fixing LAX.

LAXTEC President, Frank Clark spoke for the international airlines and their concern that there will be inadequate terminals and contact gates for the large A380 aircraft. He suggested that inadequate existing gates is the reason that international carriers are considering other destinations. He insisted that the remote gates that LAX is refurbishing at a cost of over $8M is unsatisfactory. He reiterated the statement that LAX is losing international traffic, but noted that there is satisfaction in the plans to improve Tom Bradley and a new midfield terminal. [ARSAC has questioned the business loss assertion and will be working to refine passenger destination numbers to determine what the current trend really is.]

An LAEDC rep announced that we are losing substantial money daily revenues from aircraft diverted to other cities. They are preparing a white paper for release in late August. Councilman Rosendahl strongly noted that there must be a distinction in any report between "destination" passengers who represent significant tourism dollar infusion and those just passing though LA on their way to another location. The loss of "pass through" passengers does not have very much economic impact.

I personally urge everyone to write to the Mayor to remind him that expansion north is unacceptable, PERIOD. He may be reached by fax at 213 978-0750. Please send a copy of your correspondence to me at DennySchneider@WeLiveFree.com so that I can disseminate your comments to the other elected officials throughout the area. For more information, please see www.REGIONALSOLUTION.org