Thursday, February 28, 2013

County to Compile Report on Regionalizing SoCal Airports

from santamonicapatch


The Los Angeles Planning Commission recently approve a plan to modernize LAX.
The Board of Supervisors on Tuesday asked its chief executive officer and legal staff to review efforts to regionalize Southern California airports.
The move comes less than two weeks after the city of Los Angeles' Planning Commission approved a modernization plan for Los Angeles International Airport that includes pushing the northern-most runway 260 feet closer to Westchester to widen a taxiway.
Proponents say the update will increase safety and allow LAX to accommodate large aircraft like 747s and Airbus 380s. Westchester and Playa del Rey residents oppose the move, saying it fails to comply with a 2006 settlement agreement intended to control airport traffic and noise. 
The agreement between the county, several municipalities and Los Angeles World Airports -- the city agency that operates LAX -- includes a mandate to expand other area airports to meet regional demand. LAWA, a department of the city of Los Angeles, also owns and operates the airports in Ontario and Van Nuys.
City Airport Commission President Michael Lawson has said relocation of the LAX runway would not displace any residents or businesses and would create less pollution and noise than current conditions. He called the solution a "reasonable and fair compromise" that would result in a "very significant and substantial increase in safety."
Some residents disagree.
Playa del Rey resident Lynn Edelman called the modernization plan "a very costly high-risk plan" and said airport officials were "trying to run out the clock on this board" while making no moves toward regionalization.
"The argument of safety is a fraud," Playa del Rey resident James Ouellet said.
The LAX plan is still subject to approval by the Los Angeles City Council and the Federal Aviation Administration.
A report back from county staffers is expected in 30 days.
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FAA Eyes Santa Monica Airport Tower for Closure



Santa Monica Real Estate Company, Roque and Mark
By Jason Islas
Staff WriterFebruary 27, 2013 – The Santa Monica Airport (SMO) air-traffic control tower is on the chopping block as the Department of Transportation looks for ways to cut $1 billion in spending unless a budget agreement is reached by Friday.
SMO's tower, which employs 14 air traffic controllers, is on a list of 241 towers at small airports around the country. The FAA is expected to close down about 100 of those towers.
The potential closures were mentioned in a February 22 letter sent by Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood announcing that the majority of the cuts -- $600 million -- would come from the Federal Aviation Administration.
In addition to shutting down the towers, the agency could furlough 47,000 employees, end midnight shifts in more than 60 towers across the country and slow down repairs.
SMO Manager Bob Trimborn emphasized that no decisions have been made.
“This is all a very fluid, dynamic state,” he said, adding that the list of airports, all of which support fewer than 150,000 flights a year, is a preliminary one.
News that the FAA is considering SMO's tower for closure, however, mobilized some of the airport's opponents.
John Stein, head of Sunset Park Anti-Airport, Inc. (SPAA), said that his organization would advocate for the closure.
“The impact of closing the tower will be to relentlessly decrease flight operations,” he said. “It may happen in one manner or a different manner, but it will happen.”
That isn't a foregone conclusion, airport officials said.
“There's nothing guaranteed here one way or another,” said Trimborn. “It's all conjecure.”
Trimborn noted that the majority of general aviation airports, like SMO, operate without control towers.
Some opponents of the airport have mixed feelings about the potential closure.
“I'm of two minds in this particular case,” said John Fairweather, founder of Community Against Santa Monica Airport Traffic (CASMAT).
“On the one side, I can see a considerable amount of danger involved in closing the tower,” he said. “On the other hand, it's quite likely it will reduce traffic.”
Martin Pastuscha, the City’s director of Public Works, said that no mater what the FAA decides, “Safety is our top priority.
“If the FAA closes the tower, they will have to make accommodations for that,” he said, adding that the decision “would not compromise the safety of the airport.”
However, closing the tower could make the airport less efficient. With an air-traffic control tower, take-offs and landings can be managed from the ground, allowing for pilots to line up and land or take-off in succession.
Without the tower, they can only take-off or land one at a time, which could slow down operations.
What might happen at SMO if the tower closes is just a small snapshot of what could happen at airports across the nation as a result of the March 1 budget cuts.
“Sequester… will have a very serious impact on the transportation services that are critical to the traveling public and to the nation’s economy,” LaHood said Friday.
“Flights to major cities like New York, Chicago, and San Francisco and others could experience delays of up to 90 minutes during peak hours because we have fewer controllers on staff,” he said. “Delays in these major airports will ripple across the country.”
LaHood said he has been warning the Congress of the potential problems airports and travelers would face if no agreement on the Federal budget is reached.
“These are harmful cuts with real-world consequences that will cost jobs and hurt our economy,” he said.
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Sequester Could Close SMO Tower


from thepatch



The tower is one of 100 targeted for closure. "This is a very new item to us," Santa Monica Airport Director says.
Federal officials might turn off the lights theSanta Monica Airport traffic control tower.
The tower, which handled an average of 370 operations a day last year, is one of 100 targeted for closure by the Federal Aviation Administrationif the budget sequester kicks in Friday.
The city's Airport Director Bob Trimborn said he and the FAA have not fully evaluated what the impacts might be, but did say the closure would not make the airport any less efficient.
"Our airport is on a list of proposed closures, that doesn't mean it will be closed," he told Patch.
A the city's Airport Commission meeting Monday night, Trimborn said if the tower does shutter, pilots could instead communicate with the tower at the Los Angeles International Airport and at the Southern California Terminal Approach Control Facility in San Diego.
Trimborn also assured the commission, which is an advisory board to the City Council, there are protocols in place for airports operating without towers.
"Most airports, most general aviation airports, don't have control towers," he said. "They follow what they call non-tower airport procedures."
The control tower at Santa Monica is staffed by 17 FAA employees and is open 7 a.m. to 9 p.m.
The FAA initially identified 240 towers for closure, each of those had less than 150,000 flights a year or fewer than 10,000 annual passengers. About 134,000 prop planes and jets flew in and out of SMO last year.
In addition to those that it might close permanently, the FAA is also looking at eliminating overnight operations at more than 60 towers at airports across the country, including in Sacramento.
Though the massive federal budget cuts known as "the sequester" could start Friday, the FAA has said it would not begin shutting down towers until April.
"This is a very new item to us," Trimborn said on Monday night. "We've been discussing the ramifications on the airport with the FAA throughout the day."
Related Topics: SMO and Santa Monica Airport
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