"Traffic At Long Beach Airport Triples In One Year"

Thursday, August 21, 2003

Airport passengers triple in one year
By Felix Sanchez
The Long Beach (CA) Press-Telegram


LONG BEACH Passenger traffic at Long Beach Airport continues to spiral
upward, nearly tripling from a year ago, according to the latest airport
activity figures released by the city. 

Through the end of July, more than 1.6 million people had either flown into
or out of the airport in 2003. That compares with 575,000 passengers during
the same period last year. 

The numbers are a reflection of the growth of the number of daily flights
into and out of the airport there are 40 arrivals and departures now,
compared with an average of 12 to 17 a year ago. 

The airport's 41st flight 41 is the maximum number now allowed under noise
guidelines set by a city ordinance begins operation in mid-December. That's
when Alaska Airlines will start daily nonstop service to Seattle. 

"The only thing we're growing on is in the passenger side,' said airport
spokeswoman Sharon Diggs-Jackson. "And we will continue to show growth. As
we level off in flights, next year when we compare July numbers with this
July's numbers, we probably won't show much change.' 

Over the past year, airport area residents have been leading a charge to
limit expansion at the airport, fearing it would mean more daily flights and
even more passenger activity 

Airport Manager Chris Kunze has projected that the facility would draw about
3.4 million passengers each year once 41 daily flights are operating. 

Additional flights likely won't be added over the next year, however, based
on early results from an ongoing noise study to determine if there is any
room in the airport's so-called "noise bucket' that would allow more
commercial passenger operations. 

If the 41 flights allowed produce more noise than is set by the ordinance,
no more new flights would be allowed for a year. Annual noise studies are
slated to measure if and when enough room occurs, with the City Council
scheduled to review the results every October under terms of an agreement
negotiated earlier this year. That deal resulted from a dispute over flight
slots involving the airport, JetBlue Airways, American Airlines, Alaska
Airlines and other commercial carriers. 

The biggest growth seen among commercial airlines was at JetBlue, which has
flown 563,990 passengers into and out of the airport through July 31 this
year compared with 127,070 in the same period last year.


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