BIG PLANS FOR LAX; OFFICIALS PRESS FOR AIRPORT EXPANSION.

Byline: Eric Moses Daily News Staff Writer

If you think Los Angeles International Airport is congested now, wait until 2015 when, according to officials, 38 million more passengers will jam its terminals and surrounding freeways.

As increasingly bigger planes clog LAX with more people and cargo, officials say the world will begin to re-examine whether Los Angeles remains the best West Coast port.

Like the Van Nuys and Burbank airports, LAX is hemmed in by residential neighborhoods. With the Pacific Ocean to the west, there's no way to grow except to pack more runways and terminals on its property.

Yet that is what LAX wants to do - despite neighborhoods' objections to increased noise and traffic, not to mention possible air-safety problems.

Without the expansion, supporters say, Los Angeles would begin to lose its primacy in international trade, tourism and employment.

``If Los Angeles ignores this opportunity, 360,000 jobs will go elsewhere, tourists will go elsewhere, trade will go elsewhere,'' Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan told business leaders last week. ``These are not options for the city of the 21st century.''

Already, the airport contributes $43.5 billion to the economy, but Airports Executive Director John J. Driscoll said an expansion could bring in an additional $37 billion and 367,000 more jobs.

``It's a huge impact. Air travel is the future, and Asia is our future,'' he said.

Sharing the burden

Opponents of expansion, particularly those who live in the South Bay, say the plans are unacceptable.

Los Angeles City Councilwoman Ruth Galanter, whose district includes LAX, said the airport wouldn't need to expand if the Airports Department considered using Ontario and Palmdale airports to handle growth.

``I really think our decisions about airport capacity are going to shape the next century the way decisions about moving water shaped this century,'' she said. ``So if we do it wrong it's going to be a whopper. And I believe what they are proposing is the quintessence of doing it wrong.''

Driscoll disputes any contention that he is not taking a regional approach. The department plans to spend $13 million at Palmdale and is revamping Ontario.

Airlines, he said, like flying into LAX because no single carrier dominates the number of flights, which gives passengers many opportunities for connecting flights.

``We're not trying to grow the biggest airport in the world because we want to do that. The demand is here, and we're not going to do it to shove it down people's throats. We want to work it,'' Driscoll said.

Ambitious plans

The city's Airport Commission floated four different plans last year for the expansion, which would cost between $8 billion and $12 billion, Driscoll said.

After public hearings, officials in mid-January dropped two of the plans. One considered taking over nearby Hawthorne Municipal Airport; the other included a new commuter runway that would have extended into the habitat of the endangered El Segundo blue butterfly.

The remaining plans are:

Adding a runway to the north by reconfiguring the two existing runways on that side and replacing the north terminals with new western gates.

Adding two runways, one on the north and one on the south, by relocating existing runways. Plus, a new concourse would be added.

A third concept is still being designed, but Driscoll said it will include five runways and the removal of the north terminals.

To ease the expected increase in traffic leading to LAX, planners propose building a ``ring road'' that would encircle the airport; more car pool lanes on the San Diego and Glenn Anderson freeways; and potential extension of the Metro Green Line into the airport.

On LAX grounds, a shuttle on rails would connect the new and existing terminals.

Under study

Officials are preparing an environmental impact report on the plans, to be issued this summer. Once that's released, the public, airlines, pilots and anyone interested in the airport's vast draw will be allowed to comment on the proposals.

If any plan is approved, the airlines and cargo carriers would pay for new terminals and runways through higher landing fees and concessions, Driscoll said. That would account for two-thirds of the bill, with state and federal grants to pay for freeways and access roads.

``None of the costs associated with this will be on the taxpayers,'' he said.

Roger Cohen, a spokesman for the influential Air Transport Association, which has about 20 clients at LAX, said the airlines are in favor of adding gates and runways and will fight to keep costs down. But, he said, ``What's in front of them right now is huge.''

Safety a key

Before any plan could be approved, it would need endorsement by the Federal Aviation Administration, with particular attention to air safety.

Safety in the crowded airway has been an issue, particularly after the February 1991 crash of a USAir Boeing 737 jet and a SkyWest commuter plane that killed 34 people.

Driscoll said a new runway would enhance safety by giving smaller planes their own landing strip and taking them out of the jet wash of the larger planes.

A spokesman for the Airline Pilots Association said he knows that the skies over LAX and the runways already are crowded, and his organization will keep a close watch on any plans.

``We're always concerned about aviation safety on the ground and air,'' said APA spokesman Bob Flocke. ``That is one of the things that we keep in mind when looking at these plans.''