EDITORIAL GROUNDING PROGRESS LOS ANGELES THWARTS AIRPORT REGIONALIZATION.

OFFICIALS on the Los Angeles World Airport Commission have reluctantly come to pay lip service to the idea of regional airport expansion - spreading out future air traffic over several local airports.

But actions speak louder than words. So all the while, the commission has pushed a plan to spend $12 billion expanding Los Angeles International Airport - thereby sending yet more flights to LAX, and further clogging up the San Diego Freeway from Long Beach to Santa Clarita.

Commissioners swear that expanding LAX would complement regionalization, not detract from it. They promise to work hard to expand airline services at Palmdale and Ontario, which the city of Los Angeles owns, and maybe even some former military bases in San Bernardino, Riverside and Orange counties.

But just last month, the commissioners voted to raise airport landing fees at Ontario International Airport by 59 percent. That would make the costs of flying into Ontario more expensive than LAX.

That's hardly a way to encourage regionalization.

Ontario's business needs to be expanded - not quashed.

But this is L.A. and the special interests, like airlines and labor unions, always have won.

Fortunately, Mayor James Hahn has opposed the LAX expansion plan as written, and virtually all the city and county governments in Southern California have come together to fight against it.

Perhaps the mayor and other regional leaders could get together and bring sanity - and safety - to Southern California's airspace.