Airlines strafe LAX agency as landing fees are tripled.

They threaten legal action over cost of using airport

A group representing airlines using Los Angeles International Airport last week threatened to take legal action to overturn new landing fees that triple the cost of using the airport.

In a letter to the executive director of the city's Department of Airports, the chairman of the Los Angeles Airline Airport Affairs Committee said, "The new landing fee rate is unreasonable and excessive and, therefore, unlawful in numerous respects."

The group's chairman, Bryan Enarson, told the Business Journal that legal action is being considered to stop or overturn implementation of the new fees.

He said other options are available to the group that represents the 90 commercial passenger and cargo airline users of LAX. He declined to specify those other options.

Enarson said that based on information the group has on the cost of operating the airport, the landing fees should be no more than and 70 cents per 1,000 pounds.

"We feel that the landing fees should be based on the cost of running the airport, not for raising money that could possibly be used elsewhere. Based on our information, the fees should be between 50 cents and 70 cents," said Enarson.

Under the new rate structure that was passed unanimously last week by the Board of Airport Commissioners, which oversees the operations of the airport, and was confirmed by the Los Angeles City Council, landing fees increased on July 1 from 52 cents to $1.56 for every 1,000 pounds of aircraft weight.

A spokesman for the Air Transport Association, a domestic airline trade group based in Washington, D.C., said the organization is represented in the landing fee matter by the airport affairs committee. An ATA spokesman said any action brought by the airlines will be through the Los Angeles Airline Airport Affairs Committee.

The new landing fees for international and domestic carriers are expected to increase airport revenue about $30 million a year. Currently, LAX annual revenues exceed $200 million.

The new landing fee structure changes a set of rates that had been in place for 40 years and which had become a point of attack for critics of the way the city owns and operates the 3,500-acre facility.

Some elected city officials, including Mayor Richard Riordan, have said LAX should share its revenues with the municipality and have argued that the landing fees should be raised for any possible diversion of funds.

Under Federal Aviation Administration regulations, airport revenue cannot be used for anything but airport operations. However, city officials are working to change those regulations through federal legislation. Recently, city officials traveled to Washington, D.C., seeking support from lawmakers and the Clinton administration to change FAA regulations. So far, city officials have not received firm commitments to change the regulations.

Airport officials and the Board of Airport Commissioners said the new landing fees are in line with what other major airports charge. For example, before the new fees, it cost the operator of a 747 jumbo jet $1,155 to land at LAX while it cost the same aircraft $4,451 to land at Kennedy Airport in New York, $3,480 at Heathrow in London and $3,433 at O'Hare in Chicago.

Under the new landing fees, it will cost about $3,500 to land a 747 at LAX.

"We are bringing the rates up to the market rate. ... Our rates are now where they should be in comparison to other airports," said Leland Wong, president of the Board of Airport Commissioners.

Wong, at a regular board meeting, said the department is entering "a new era" in which it is "interested in being an important part of the future of this city."

Airport officials said they were unaware of any possible legal action by the airlines to overturn the new landing fees. They also declined to say that the additional revenue will be set aside to eventually go into the city's general fund.

The Department of Airports, which in the past has been considered a fairly stable and successful city agency, is undergoing some major changes. The department has a new executive director, Jack Driscoll, succeeding Clifton Moore who ran the agency for 24 years before retiring earlier this year.

Last week, Philip Depoian, a close aide to former Mayor Tom Bradley, was appointed deputy executive director of the department. The appointment was attacked by several city council members as political "cronyism," a charge denied by Bradley's staff.

With Riordan's election, all five commissioners have been asked to resign. Last week two of the commissioners -- Jack Tenner and Johnnie Cochran -- retired from the board.

There is also, with Riordan's election, increasing discussion of leasing the facility to a private operator.

In addition to the new set of landing fees, the board also recently approved a departmental reorganization that included cutting the budget and instituting a hiring freeze.

Part of the reorganization included establishment of a special fund that could be used to share airport revenue with the city, if such a move is approved by the federal government.

Enarson said revenue from the increase in landing fees should not used to do that. "The airlines should not be funding the Los Angeles city budget," he said.

He said in an interview and in the letter to Driscoll that the airlines did not have enough time to review the new landing fees prior to their approval.