Airport Capacity

Re "Up in the Air Over Airport," editorial, April 5: Ontario International Airport is owned by Los Angeles World Airports and affiliated with the Los Angeles Department of Airports. To folks and businesses in the booming Inland Empire, Orange County and the San Gabriel Valley, LAX is, well, way over there on the other side of Los Angeles. Ontario airport is positioned for tremendous passenger and cargo expansion. Soon, 28 buildings will begin leasing to industrial and shipping tenants; Lockheed Martin vacated them to move out to the Antelope Valley.

The city officials who run Los Angeles International Airport have been trying for what seems like forever to move the north runway 260 feet closer to the boundary separating the airport from the community of Westchester. The move would put more space between the two main runways and allow pilots to use a central taxiway without risking collision. When the City Council takes up the matter this week, it should complete this chapter of the long, sorry saga of neighborhood versus airport and approve the north runway move.

The city officials who run Los Angeles International Airport have been trying for what seems like forever to move the north runway 260 feet closer to the boundary separating the airport from the community of Westchester. The move would put more space between the two main runways and allow pilots to use a central taxiway without risking collision. When the City Council takes up the matter this week, it should complete this chapter of the long, sorry saga of neighborhood versus airport and approve the north runway move.

Re "What Cox Should Have Said on Airport, Schools," Jan. 19: Alas, after just one blissful Sunday edition with no letters about El Toro, Larry Root uses Rep. Christopher Cox's piece (which was about the economy, not the airport) to bootstrap into a harangue about the economic need for an El Toro International Airport. Root conveniently ignores the facts that Orange County already has a not-yet-paid-for, $250-million airport (John Wayne) and that it operates at 50% of its designed capacity, strangled by artificial limits on capacity and operation by Newport Beach.

I am sometimes accused (letter, Feb. 28) of attempting to close Los Angeles International Airport in order to build Palmdale Airport. Nothing could be further from the truth. The truth is that we do need additional airport capacity in Southern California; the question is: Where? I believe that LAX already carries disproportionately far more in traffic than its location within the region justifies. We have a very limited set of options available at LAX, but Palmdale offers the opportunity to develop an additional airport to carry the growth Southern California expects in the coming decades.

Re "County Has Options After El Toro Vote," letters, June 9: Thank you pilot and aircraft owner Patrick Barry for your letter that states what the Airline Pilots Assn. said from the beginning. The El Toro runways will not work, and neither will an international airport in southern Orange County. The "never say die" pro-airport politicians and uninformed people of Orange County will never acknowledge this. The residents of Leisure World look down on the runways, which are so close one can almost spit on them.

I assume columnist James Flanigan lives nowhere near an airport or else he would not be so gung-ho on airport expansion ("High Time for Airports," Feb. 14). He is absolutely right when he says airports arouse opposition from all sorts of people. Why? They are unbearably noisy, they create pollution, things drop from planes, there is a constant chance of accident. Building more and more--whether it be airports or highways--encourages more usage and pretty soon we are right back where we started--never enough room on the freeways--never enough airport capacity.

I received a brochure, "Flying in the Face of Safety," questioning the safety of the El Toro airport. Obviously, it was designed and distributed by South County activists to kill the proposed airport. What was particularly offensive to me was that they had the audacity to try to put Newport Beach in a bad light with a quote insinuating people will die at El Toro because our citizens don't want flights over them. That is just outrageous. I've taken the plane out of John Wayne Airport enough to know El Toro could not be any more of a risk to fly out of than John Wayne, with its dangerously small runway.

It is appalling to me that South County residents complain it would be unfair to them to build an airport at El Toro while at the same time asserting that the county should instead open up John Wayne Airport to greater capacity. For years, residents of Santa Ana Heights, Costa Mesa and Newport Beach have lived with airport noise so that all of the residents of Orange County could have a convenient airport, in effect paying a tax for the benefit of the entire county. Due to the lack of a buffer zone like the one that surrounds El Toro, the jet noise is extremely loud, much louder than the noise that would be experienced by South County residents from an El Toro airport.

Re "What Cox Should Have Said on Airport, Schools," Jan. 19: Alas, after just one blissful Sunday edition with no letters about El Toro, Larry Root uses Rep. Christopher Cox's piece (which was about the economy, not the airport) to bootstrap into a harangue about the economic need for an El Toro International Airport. Root conveniently ignores the facts that Orange County already has a not-yet-paid-for, $250-million airport (John Wayne) and that it operates at 50% of its designed capacity, strangled by artificial limits on capacity and operation by Newport Beach.

Re "County Has Options After El Toro Vote," letters, June 9: Thank you pilot and aircraft owner Patrick Barry for your letter that states what the Airline Pilots Assn. said from the beginning. The El Toro runways will not work, and neither will an international airport in southern Orange County. The "never say die" pro-airport politicians and uninformed people of Orange County will never acknowledge this. The residents of Leisure World look down on the runways, which are so close one can almost spit on them.

Re "Read Our Lips: County Needs a Second Airport," Orange County Voices, Feb. 4: Shirley Conger seems to be in some fantasy that because there are a few strawberry fields lining the borders of El Toro, the entire area will be devoid of the sounds of aircraft from a proposed El Toro airport. She apparently wasn't on the deck at the home in Aliso Viejo during the flight demonstrations when a surprised Supervisor Chuck Smith admitted there would be a need for noise mitigation. Conger, Airport Working Group, and other pro-El Toro groups cheered when Measure F was overturned.

With one week left before a series of city-sponsored millennium festivals, less than half of the 92,000 free tickets for the event at Van Nuys Airport have been snatched up, but city officials believe demand will increase as the events draw near. Many tickets are still available for four other New Year's Eve festivals being hosted by the city as family-friendly, alcohol-free celebrations of the new millennium.

I received a brochure, "Flying in the Face of Safety," questioning the safety of the El Toro airport. Obviously, it was designed and distributed by South County activists to kill the proposed airport. What was particularly offensive to me was that they had the audacity to try to put Newport Beach in a bad light with a quote insinuating people will die at El Toro because our citizens don't want flights over them. That is just outrageous. I've taken the plane out of John Wayne Airport enough to know El Toro could not be any more of a risk to fly out of than John Wayne, with its dangerously small runway.

I am sick of seeing references in print to the "existing airport at El Toro." It is time to clear the air. There has never been an airport at El Toro. There has, since the 1940s, been a Marine Corps Air Station--huge difference. Prospective home buyers in the area were warned, prior to purchasing property, that the air base was there. Nobody ever said anything about a 24-hour-a-day international airport. The Marines were good neighbors. Yes, their flights were noisy and disruptive, but they were also infrequent and short.

It is appalling to me that South County residents complain it would be unfair to them to build an airport at El Toro while at the same time asserting that the county should instead open up John Wayne Airport to greater capacity. For years, residents of Santa Ana Heights, Costa Mesa and Newport Beach have lived with airport noise so that all of the residents of Orange County could have a convenient airport, in effect paying a tax for the benefit of the entire county. Due to the lack of a buffer zone like the one that surrounds El Toro, the jet noise is extremely loud, much louder than the noise that would be experienced by South County residents from an El Toro airport.

City Councilman Edd Tuttle, a longtime critic of noise generated at the Long Beach Municipal Airport, wants to replace one of the airport runways with warehouses, light-manufacturing plants, offices and a 250-room hotel.

Re "Read Our Lips: County Needs a Second Airport," Orange County Voices, Feb. 4: Shirley Conger seems to be in some fantasy that because there are a few strawberry fields lining the borders of El Toro, the entire area will be devoid of the sounds of aircraft from a proposed El Toro airport. She apparently wasn't on the deck at the home in Aliso Viejo during the flight demonstrations when a surprised Supervisor Chuck Smith admitted there would be a need for noise mitigation. Conger, Airport Working Group, and other pro-El Toro groups cheered when Measure F was overturned.

I am sometimes accused (letter, Feb. 28) of attempting to close Los Angeles International Airport in order to build Palmdale Airport. Nothing could be further from the truth. The truth is that we do need additional airport capacity in Southern California; the question is: Where? I believe that LAX already carries disproportionately far more in traffic than its location within the region justifies. We have a very limited set of options available at LAX, but Palmdale offers the opportunity to develop an additional airport to carry the growth Southern California expects in the coming decades.

Re "Up in the Air Over Airport," editorial, April 5: Ontario International Airport is owned by Los Angeles World Airports and affiliated with the Los Angeles Department of Airports. To folks and businesses in the booming Inland Empire, Orange County and the San Gabriel Valley, LAX is, well, way over there on the other side of Los Angeles. Ontario airport is positioned for tremendous passenger and cargo expansion. Soon, 28 buildings will begin leasing to industrial and shipping tenants; Lockheed Martin vacated them to move out to the Antelope Valley.