EDITORIAL NO-FLY ZONE HAHN'S OBSESSION WITH LAX 'MODERNIZATION' TRUMPS COMMON SENSE.

YOU'VE got to hand it to Los Angeles Mayor James Hahn. When he gets an idea in his head, he sticks with it - never mind the odds, the details or the consequences.

Call him determined or call him dense, but when he wants to, he can be tenacious.

The latest bee in the mayor's bonnet: Modernizing Los Angeles International Airport.

From a public policy standpoint, it's hard to see why Hahn is so adamant about sinking $9.1 billion into revamping LAX.

Ostensibly, the reason is safety. Hahn claims that his consultants' grandiose scheme for moving all check-in counters to a single remote location is the best way to keep terrorists from striking airline terminals.

But experts confirm what common sense suggests, that relocating ticket counters will only relocate terrorist targets. It won't make passengers or airport personnel any safer, and could make it a lot worse with everybody in the same place.

Since passenger safety and convenience aren't the answer for Hahn's passion, the most plausible explanation is the most cynical one: Overhauling LAX would amount to a tremendous windfall for the contractors and unions that would get the work, many of which contribute handsomely to Hahn's political campaigns.

After all, they're the only ones that seem to gain from the plan.

Airlines are, for the moment anyway, less than thrilled about it. They see Hahn's proposal as a massive expense and inconvenience attached to very little actual benefit, especially because Hahn has vowed that the plan will include a hard-and-fast cap of 78 million passengers that can pass through LAX a year, whereas the airlines want no limit whatsoever.

It's an odd promise, actually - a ``cap'' that marks an increase.

As it stands, with the airline industry still in a post 9-11 slump, only 56.2 million passengers currently pass through LAX each year, meaning that under Hahn's plan - and much to the annoyance of anyone who travels the 405 Freeway - passenger traffic would increase by as much as 39 percent by 2020.

And there's little reason to believe that a cap, even if adopted, would stick. If the experience of Burbank Airport is any indication, limiting flights can only be achieved by the Federal Aviation Administration, which shows no inclination to do so these days.

So why make the pledge at all?

Because Hahn is desperate to get somebody - anybody - to support his plan, besides the unions and contractors. He hopes that a cap on passengers will win over the city's battle-hardened opponents of airport expansion.

Maybe, but those who are against enlarging LAX want more than just a cap on passengers, they want a coherent, regional plan for air travel, one that makes better use of smaller, outlying airports, and one that requires Orange County to start doing its fair share.

But Hahn, in his zeal to remake LAX, has paid scant attention to the regionalization question, just as he hasn't bothered to ask whether it is worth spending $9.1 billion in public money on a project of dubious merit.

Hahn tried to give the public the bum's rush by limiting public input to a mere 45 days but agreed to double that under pressure.

Hahn's made up his mind: He wants to start LAX modernization as soon as possible, and he'll worry about the practical implications later. But that's the wrong way to go on a project of this importance.