Airport Solution in Southern California: Regionalization

January 1, 2004

Airport Solution: Regionalization
Pasadena Star-News, CA

IF, as the Southern California Association of Governments predicts, Palmdale 
Airport will serve some 12.8 million passengers by 2030, we wouldn't be 
surprised if some of its flights are aboard winged pigs.

After all, airborne swine have a better chance of becoming a reality in this 
lifetime than any SCAG report.

Beefing up Palmdale might be a great idea, but when it comes to SCAG, great 
ideas are a dime a dozen. And SCAG's latest effort, "Destination 2030,' which 
envisions Palmdale as the local hub for international travel, is destined for 
the same fate.

Clearly the only practical, long-term solution to Southern California's 
aviation needs is regionalization. Los Angeles International Airport is maxed 
out. Palmdale, as well as Ontario and Orange County, will need to pick up a 
greater share of the region's air travelers in the years ahead. 

But the problem is the airlines, which like the simplicity and lower costs of 
doing business in one place, and thus reject regionalization. 

Former Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan pushed for a massive expansion of LAX, 
but the plan lost steam after 9-11. And Mayor James Hahn though nominally a 
proponent of regionalization seems to be pushing for the same by way of his 
$9.1 billion airport "modernization' scheme.

The only meaningful political support behind a regional airport plan comes from 
SCAG, which is to say there isn't really any meaningful support for the idea at 
all.

The agency lacks any authority and thus is routinely ignored by the very 
governments that make up its membership. Like countless other SCAG studies 
before it, "Destination 2030' is but one more pig that won't fly.

callout: Expanding Palmdale Airport makes sense. Burbank can't expand and LAX 
is at its max, too. However, no regional or local government pays attention to 
the toothless SCAG. This idea will be thrown on the junk heap just like every 
other SCAG idea. 
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