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In 2005 the city cut a deal with the grass-roots Alliance for a Regional Solution to Airport Congestion by agreeing to reduce the number of gates in operation at LAX by two a year, to a maximum of 10, once annual passenger traffic reaches 75 million.
The upsurge in passenger traffic may mean 71MAP by the end of 2014 and possibly 75MAP by the end of 2015. LAX is now the most popular destination for the A380 that does not have any of the super-jumbos based there.
LAX has moved from the 6th to 4th busiest airport in the world, so this is new ground where an ultra busy airport begins to close gates.
Much of the world is planning on airports to handle more than 100MAP, from London Estuary airport, Mexico City, Beijing, Dubai, Istanbul, Hong Kong and even Vietnam.
Atlanta seems to be holding out ahead of Beijing for the next few years, but inevitably it will fall to #2. The only flights to Asia are to Tokyo and Seoul.
I think it may be a mistake not to make some plan like that for the USA. The argument seems to be that the proliferation of large airports in the USA will collectively handle the load.
I seriously think that LAX should entertain plans for a floating runway to handle the big planes.
There's no other option I know of for expanding LAX. What about expanding the other airports in the LA metro area? I haven't used Ontario in years, but doesn't it have more capability to expand and possibly have international flights?
They tried to build that new airport in OC at the closed marine base (El Toro) but people threw a fit over it, so it didn't happen. John Wayne can't expand or handle wide-body aircraft. And I'm not sure about Long Beach... never used it before, but could it handle more traffic?
Location: The Circle City. Sometimes NE of Bagdad.
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Originally Posted by denverian
There's no other option I know of for expanding LAX. What about expanding the other airports in the LA metro area? I haven't used Ontario in years, but doesn't it have more capability to expand and possibly have international flights?
They tried to build that new airport in OC at the closed marine base (El Toro) but people threw a fit over it, so it didn't happen. John Wayne can't expand or handle wide-body aircraft. And I'm not sure about Long Beach... never used it before, but could it handle more traffic?
ONT has the capacity, but LAWA's strangle hold on ONT pretty much kills that idea until the courts sort it out.
Interesting. But at least there is capacity for growth. I lived in Orange for may years, and would check ONT for flights to see if they were cheaper than LAX or SNA. SNA was obviously the closest to home, but for transcontinental flights or Hawaii or Europe, I'd use LAX. ONT is actually closer to much of northern OC than LAX is, plus it's easier to use. It seems like a great opportunity to expand and take pressure off LAX eventually.
Location: The Circle City. Sometimes NE of Bagdad.
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^^ Even if Ontario wins this from LAWA it's gonna take along time to win the airlines trust which I think they can do. Ontario struck a deal with the devil, and now they have to get out of it. LAWA is being pretty arrogant about this as ONT has been a cash cow for them.
On the other hand, I really like the old ONT, sigh.
Interesting. But at least there is capacity for growth. I lived in Orange for may years, and would check ONT for flights to see if they were cheaper than LAX or SNA. SNA was obviously the closest to home, but for transcontinental flights or Hawaii or Europe, I'd use LAX. ONT is actually closer to much of northern OC than LAX is, plus it's easier to use. It seems like a great opportunity to expand and take pressure off LAX eventually.
Ontario is the official reliever airport for LAX as they are both controlled by LAWA although the city of Ontario has been critical of LAWA's handling of the airport given it's greatly reduced number of flights. The twin terminals can accommodate up to 10 million passengers a year. ONT’s twin terminals are currently serving 4.3 million passengers annually (down from 7.2 million before the financial meltdown). By comparison LAX will probably increase it's number of passengers by 4.3 million this year.
They have a long runway, and can land large planes (but no airline would want to schedule widebody flights to such a small airport). Of the 15 airports with nonstop flights, there is one international destination, Guadalajara MX. Right now there are competing Mexican airlines, Aeromexico and Volaris.
Ontario's top 15 destinations
1 Phoenix, Arizona (PHX) 381,000 Southwest, US Airways
2 Oakland, California 241,000 Southwest
3 Sacramento, California 212,000 Southwest
4 Dallas/Fort Worth, Texas 189,000 American (1187 miles)
5 Las Vegas, Nevada 181,000 Southwest
6 San Jose, California 134,000 Southwest
7 Seattle/Tacoma, Washington 131,000 Alaska
8 Denver, Colorado 117,000 Southwest, United
9 Salt Lake City, Utah 86,000 Delta
10 San Francisco, California 72,000 United
INTERNATIONAL: Guadalajara
DOMESTIC: Portland,Chicago-Midway, Denver
SEASONAL: Atlanta
=================
Ontario's ability to relieve some of the origin and destination domestic traffic from LAX is very high, but that is not what I am talking about.
Multiple countries are planning for airports with capacity an order of magnitude higher than ATL (world leader at 94.4 MAP last year). LAX and JFK are the USA leaders in long haul international flights (over 2000 nm).
With LAX, ORD, SFO and JFK severely limited by geography and ATL being too far from most of the Asian airports, that pretty much leaves DFW and DEN as potential airports for coming explosive growth.
Although the idea of connecting the 50 miles from LAX to ONT by maglev train has been looked at extensively, I think the only solution is a floating runway in the ocean for the large jets at LAX, with a people mover to the old terminals for transfers to domestic flights.
I would think you'll have an easier time expanding IAH than you would DFW. Plus the issue with both airports is that they're such fortified hubs for their respective airlines.
Plus the issue with both airports is that they're such fortified hubs for their respective airlines.
Excellent point! IAH is United 53.67% and DFW is American 69.90% (not counting their regional airlines).
LAX is possibly the most uniformly divided airport of the major airports in the USA.
18.48% United
17.36% American
15.87% Southwest
14.00% Delta
10.12% SkyWest
24.17% Other
The logical choice for the #1 airport in a decade is LAX since Los Angeles is the primary destination of many international visitors anyway, and it is closer to Asia.
Hence the dilemma. With LAX being required to shut gates as early as 2016 (if it reaches 75 MAP in 2015) for the first time in history severe limitations are being placed on one of the world's top 10 airports.
I think that LAWA needs to stop this illusion that Ontario is going to become a reliever airport and the two airports are going to be connected by MAGLEV.
A floating runway for commercial use has never been built, but I don't think it is really cutting edge technology. Also a neutrally buoyant rail tunnel has never been built, but we are only talking a few miles.
Location: The Circle City. Sometimes NE of Bagdad.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Des-Lab
Here ya go. This is a picture I took of the old terminal shortly before it closed.
I cannot tell you how much I enjoyed flying out of the old airport. Thanx for the pix.
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