ARE AIRPORT OFFICIALS FINALLY ON BOARD? COMMITMENT TO REGIONAL SOLUTION ARRIVES TOO LATE TO BE CONVINCING.

Byline: Ruth Galanter 

How refreshing it is to hear officials from Los Angeles World Airports finally admit that a regional approach to solving the area's future air transportation needs is the smart way to proceed. But let's remember they didn't think this up by themselves.

After 30 years of neglect, LAWA's newfound interest in outlying airports is the direct result of pressure from neighbors of Los Angeles International Airport, who are mad as hell and not going to take it anymore, and others around the region who are raising very serious economic, environmental and safety questions surrounding the increasing number of passengers at LAX.

Anyone who has been paying attention to the dialogue about the proposed master plan for LAX is no doubt amused at airport officials' newly professed religion concerning regional solutions for air traffic needs. Who are they trying to kid? The master plan juggernaut grinds on as LAWA continues to spend most of its time, energy and resources on an ill-conceived plan to keep jamming more passengers and cargo into an overcrowded airport. It's as if they honestly believe that changing the rhetoric from ``expansion'' to ``modernization'' will fool the public into accepting a doubling of passenger traffic at LAX and on the surrounding freeways. A number of assertions made in a recent opinion piece by LAWA Executive Director Lydia Kennard are flawed:

--LAWA's proposed traffic mitigation is a sham. The ``ring road,'' which LAWA constantly touts as relieving surface-street traffic jams, will still require access from the 405 Freeway, which will continue to be more and more of a traffic nightmare. Extending the Green Line into the airport will still require getting to the Green Line from the Blue Line or by car. < --Los Angeles County is projected to have a far smaller growth rate over the coming 20 years than the Inland Empire, the north valleys and Central California. There is no reason these people should have to bypass other airports and go to LAX.

--The only thing LAX has to offer the rest of the region is that most of the airlines are there today. However, smart airlines are already marketing the advantages of service at airports close to where the people are. For example, America West advertises its service as available ``at an airport near you'' and then lists six Los Angeles area airports from which travelers can fly.

--In LAWA's desire to get the master plan approved at any cost, it is appropriating credit for efforts it initially resisted, like expanding regional airports, and projects it failed to pursue until forced to do so, like residential soundproofing. LAWA did nothing to initiate soundproofing until I filed the city's first-ever application for soundproofing funds. LAWA later discovered the public relations value of this program to show its ``good neighbor'' policy.

I am pleased to see that LAWA is at least trying to convince the public that it is committed to regional expansion. It has come up a long way from the days when my push for expansion of outlying airports was referred to as a ``minor nuisance'' and ``folly.''

But, I'd be more impressed if LAWA would prove its commitment to the ``regional approach'' by abandoning its misguided pursuit of expanding LAX, with its long delays, overcrowded conditions and already impossible ground access. Instead, LAWA should be constructing terminals and cargo facilities at Ontario and Palmdale and working with airlines, travel agents and shippers to offer truly regional service. Those of us who truly favor a ``regional approach'' are not deceived by LAWA's new ``modernization'' label for its LAX expansion plan. Nor should you be.