Los Angeles World Airports

In what could be the largest commercial real estate transaction of the year in Los Angeles County, Los Angeles World Airports is negotiating to acquire a 21-acre parking lot on the east edge of LAX, brokers said Tuesday. It is being offered for sale by AMB Properties Corp., a San Francisco industrial landlord that has owned the lot called Park One since 2002.

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.

Over in one corner is a replica of the Wright Brothers' 1903 Flyer, the world's first piloted powered aircraft. Elsewhere in the former Santa Monica Airport hangar are a 1929 Lockheed Vega and a 1939 Howard DGA-15. But the newest feature at Santa Monica's Museum of Flying takes aim at the future of airline service - what is coming in the next few months to nearby Los Angeles International Airport, and also what airports everywhere could look like 150 years from now. A detailed, 24-foot scale model of the $1.5-billion makeover of LAX's Tom Bradley International Terminal will be displayed at the museum through Aug. 25 as part of an exhibition called Now Boarding: Fentress Airports + The Architecture of Flight.

The operator of LAX is “very concerned” about the impact the air traffic controller furloughs will have on flight delays, a Los Angeles World Airports spokeswoman said Monday.  As part of $600 million the  Federal Aviation Administration  is expected to cut as part of the sequestration -- the deep budget cuts Congress agreed to when it failed to reach a broader budget agreement -- air traffic controllers are taking one unpaid day off...

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa today will announce the appointment of a nationally recognized aviation industry insider as executive director of Los Angeles' airports agency, The Times has learned. Gina Marie Lindsey, who guided a controversial $4.1-billion expansion at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, will take the reins at a pivotal moment in the history of Los Angeles World Airports, which operates LAX and airports in Van Nuys, Ontario and Palmdale.

Van Nuys Airport has been plagued with budget deficits for years. Audits have uncovered mismanagement, poor tenant relations, lost business opportunities and facilities that were leased in violation of federal regulations. Now, a dispute between two prominent business leaders and political heavyweights is raising more questions about the management of one of the busiest general aviation airports in the nation. Real estate magnate Robert F. Maguire and billionaire David H. Murdock, the chief executive of Dole Food Co., are locked in a legal battle involving their aviation service companies, which are competitors at Van Nuys.

The Los Angeles City Council on Wednesday agreed to return more than $21.2 million to the operator of LAX to settle legal claims that airport funds were misappropriated in violation of federal regulations. On its last vote of the year, the council unanimously approved a plan for the city to repay $18.1 million to Los Angeles World Airports, which had been accused by the Federal Aviation Administration of improperly diverting the funds to L.A. Inc., the city's convention and visitors bureau.

City ethics investigators have recommended that civil charges be brought against six current and former officials at Los Angeles World Airports who allegedly accepted thousands of dollars worth of discounted trips to China and New England from an association that represents dozens of international airlines that use LAX. According to records obtained by The Times, the trips involved a weeklong cruise last year along the New England and Canadian coasts...

Los Angeles, more than most cities, has defined itself by continual bursts of expansion and an unflagging optimism about its place in the world. But as the city has grown to a population nearing 4 million, we've neglected some major holes in the civic fabric. Los Angeles has become as well known for its high-profile architectural and urban-planning failures - for the buildings, institutions and public spaces we can't seem to get right - as for its innovations or breakthroughs. This is particularly true for our civic architecture, which has never matched the ambition and allure of the region's private houses and high-end commercial enclaves.

The City Council voted unanimously Tuesday to appoint Kim Day as the executive director of the city's airport agency. Day, who was interim executive director of Los Angeles World Airports for the last year, will oversee four airports, in Los Angeles, Ontario, Van Nuys and Palmdale. She will earn $230,491 a year.

Los Angeles City Administrative Officer Miguel A. Santana said Thursday he was shocked by a legal claim filed by an Inland Empire group attempting to gain control of L.A./Ontario International Airport. Santana, who has been moderating talks over a possible airport transfer, said he thought the parties were having productive discussions. The legal action, he said, could undermine further efforts to reach a deal. “It violates the spirit of the negotiations,” Santana said. “We've spent a lot of time and resources to set up a fair process.

Inland Empire officials on Thursday morning lodged a legal claim against Los Angeles in an attempt to force the city to hand them control of L.A./Ontario International Airport, which has been in serious decline. The city of Ontario filed the claim -- the first step toward bringing a lawsuit -- a day after rejecting Los Angeles World Airports' offer to sell the once popular aviation hub for almost $475 million. Negotiations have been underway for several months. In addition to the transfer of ownership,  the action seeks to terminate a 1967 joint powers agreement in which the Los Angeles airport department became the operator of Ontario on the condition that it improve the facility.

Inland Empire officials seeking control of LA/Ontario International Airport are balking at an unprecedented demand by Los Angeles that they buy the struggling operation for hundreds of millions of dollars. Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and the agency that operates Ontario have insisted that the once-thriving aviation hub be sold at a price that helps recover the cost of improvements made over the years. Their studies estimate Ontario's fair market value at $243 million to $605 million.

Over in one corner is a replica of the Wright Brothers' 1903 Flyer, the world's first piloted powered aircraft. Elsewhere in the former Santa Monica Airport hangar are a 1929 Lockheed Vega and a 1939 Howard DGA-15. But the newest feature at Santa Monica's Museum of Flying takes aim at the future of airline service - what is coming in the next few months to nearby Los Angeles International Airport, and also what airports everywhere could look like 150 years from now. A detailed, 24-foot scale model of the $1.5-billion makeover of LAX's Tom Bradley International Terminal will be displayed at the museum through Aug. 25 as part of an exhibition called Now Boarding: Fentress Airports + The Architecture of Flight.

A Los Angeles airport police officer who was fired last May has won his job back after a civil service proceeding concluded that his termination for alleged assault with a deadly weapon was based on overwhelming inconsistencies, weak evidence and erroneous statements. The city's Board of Civil Service Commissioners decided Feb. 28 that Officer Rodney J. Rouzan, a 12-year veteran of the Los Angeles Airport Police Department, should be returned to duty without any loss of pay or benefits.

Los Angeles, more than most cities, has defined itself by continual bursts of expansion and an unflagging optimism about its place in the world. But as the city has grown to a population nearing 4 million, we've neglected some major holes in the civic fabric. Los Angeles has become as well known for its high-profile architectural and urban-planning failures - for the buildings, institutions and public spaces we can't seem to get right - as for its innovations or breakthroughs. This is particularly true for our civic architecture, which has never matched the ambition and allure of the region's private houses and high-end commercial enclaves.

Kelly Martin, who served as chief of staff to former Mayor Richard Riordan, is returning to City Hall as the supervising attorney for the city attorney's Airport Division and general counsel to Los Angeles World Airports, officials announced Thursday. City Atty. Rocky Delgadillo, who worked with Martin in Riordan's office, made the appointment. "Working closely with Kelly over the years, I have seen firsthand her outstanding leadership and constant professionalism," Delgadillo said.

The Los Angeles Department of Airports announced Tuesday that it is changing its name to Los Angeles World Airports. But don't worry: Los Angeles International Airport will continue to be known as LAX, the identifying letters assigned to it by the Federal Aviation Administration.

The county Board of Supervisors on Tuesday sought to determine whether Los Angeles airport officials have complied with a 2006 court settlement requiring them to spread the growth in flights at busy Los Angeles International Airport to others in the region. Supervisors directed the county counsel's office and William T Fujioka, the county's chief executive officer, to assess how well Los Angeles World Airports has implemented the agreement that ended a legal challenge to the plans of former Mayor James K. Hahn to modernize LAX. They must report to the board in 30 days.

A report prepared for Los Angeles County's top administrator claims the operators of LAX have virtually ignored legal requirements to reduce effects on the environment by dispersing growth in commercial flights to other airports in the region. A 2006 court settlement in a series of lawsuits over expansion plans at Los Angeles International Airport ordered Los Angeles World Airports to begin regionalizing airline traffic. But William T Fujioka, the chief executive for Los Angeles County, and a consultant's report prepared for his office asserts that the city airport department has made only "token efforts" to comply with provisions of the settlement that seek a wider distribution of flights.