Remember that whole strategy from LA Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa about airport regionalization? Well, it took yet another step backward yesterday with the recommendation of the Burbank airport authority to enact a hard curfew (via this excellent Airliners.net thread).

You can guess where this is coming from - the surrounding community. Thanks to their objections, the airport wants to prohibit any operations between 10p and 7a. Is that a horrible idea? Well, not entirely. We have one of those here in Long Beach, and it’s nice to have peace and quiet while we sleep. That being said, these are very different in that Burbank will have much stiffer fines. That’s bad news for travelers.

In Long Beach, airlines don’t pay a fine for violating the curfew until their third violation. At that point, they pay a whopping $100. Then each subsequent violation in a twelve month period will cost $300. (Read more) The Burbank fine, according to the Application (pdf), will cost $3,671 for the first fine, $7,342 for the second, $11,013 for the third, and $14,684 for the fourth over a twelve month period. If an airline has four violations, it’s banned from the airport for a year.

I know, you’re wondering what this has to do with you, right? Well, with penalties that steep, airlines will be less willing to schedule any flights near that curfew time at night for fear that they’ll miss it. Right now, there are a couple of flights scheduled to go before 7a and I think one after 10p. The night flights, even the ones before curfew, are most at risk, because if they’re delayed in the slightest, they won’t be able to land. Then early morning flights get in trouble because the plane that usually spends the night in Burbank ready to fly early the next day won’t be able to land until morning. That, of course, is dependent upon the airlines being willing to even schedule flights at those times with the potential penalties so high.

Probably even more annoying than having your flight not get out on time will be when you’re on a late arriving flight into Burbank. Let’s say you’re on the last flight from SFO and fog has delayed flights a couple hours. Well, that last flight would probably go if it were heading to Long Beach because the cost of violating the curfew isn’t prohibitively steep if it doesn’t happen often. (Honestly, it could rise some and still be ok.) At Burbank? Forget it. They’ll just park the plane or divert you to another airport instead. Great, huh?

My advice: If this curfew gets enacted, don’t fly into Burbank too close to the curfew. Fly to LAX instead. Not what the Mayor of LA had in mind, right? Well, he’s not exactly following his regionalization plan either. While Burbank is thumbing its nose at the that strategy, Mayor Villaraigosa is crowing about a new flight that he’s landed at LAX.

The new flight is on Korean Air. The airline will now fly from LAX to Sao Paulo, presumably as an extension of one of the daily Seoul/Incheon flights. Asian carriers that want access to the largest city in South America can’t fly nonstop (range problems) so they need to find a place to go first. JAL used to fly via LAX (I actually took the flight once), but now they go through JFK. So, Korean will now pick up the slack and try to make a go of it.

Now, Mayor Villaraigosa claims in the city’s press release that the flights are “a direct result of the Mayor’s 2006 trade mission to Asia.” Um, right. I really hope the airline isn’t sitting around saying, “Gee, you know I like that guy. How cool was it that he came to visit us? We should start a flight to Brazil from his city.”

So, what are the takeaways here?

• If Burbank enacts this curfew, don’t book a flight arriving there near the curfew for fear you may not get there in time
• If you’re flying to Sao Paulo from LA, congrats. You now have a nonstop option.
• Regionalization isn’t as easy as you (or the Mayor) might think

I’ve just survived what may possibly have been the first tornado warning I’ve ever endured living in LA. And yes, I grew up here. I’m not quite sure why they’d bother doing that because none of us have any clue what we’re supposed to do if there’s a tornado nearby. It’s not like we have basements here.

I swear I’m not just hear to tell you about the weather. I’m actually trying to figure something out, so hopefully someone can enlighten me.

The airports here have been operating in reverse configurations all day today (eg landing over the ocean and taking off over land at LAX). Here at home on the west side of Long Beach, that means we can see landings heading to runway 12 instead of the usual departures from runway 30. You know what? This isn’t going to make sense to 99% of you. Let me throw down a map here. We live west of the airport.

Anyway, I was out walking the dog a little after 530p when I saw an Airborne Express 767 fly overhead lined up for runway 7L. He throttled up and ended up going around before landing on 12. This seemed really odd to me, because I’ve never seen a large jet operate on those smaller runways. I’ve only seen them on 12/30. So, I went back and listened to the tower archives on liveatc.net to see what was going on.

Here’s the conversation that occurred:

ABX1753: Tower, Abex1753 Heavy, we’re trying to get on runway 12 here
LGB Tower: Abex1753, Long Beach Tower, runway 12 cleared to land
ABX1753: Cleared to land runway 12, Abex1753

Then a couple minutes later . . .

ABX1753: Are we cleared to land runway 12?
LGB Tower: Abex1753 Heavy, you’re lined up for runway 7L right now
ABX1753: Ok, we’d like to go around for 1753

Needless to say, the tower cleared him to execute a missed approach, and that’s what I saw. Now I’ll get to the point . . . how the heck does that happen?!? Shouldn’t an aircraft know with which runway it’s lined up? I mean, even a simple compass could tell you that you’re lined up at heading 070. Can someone explain this?

Ok, ok. I know I sometimes talk too much about aviation in Southern California, but I’ve been trying to cut back. This time though, I have to comment.

It’s not LAX that’s causing problems this time. Nope, it’s a mere 375 hours down the 405 (20 minutes on those rare occasions with no traffic) at Long Beach Airport.

Now, this airport is great. Easy in and out, cheap parking (long term is $6 a day), and no airport-related delays. This airport has plenty of room for more flights in theory. There is a nice long 10,000 foot runway that used to see Douglas-produced aircraft departing for test flights. Now, it lies underutilized. How is this possible in a region which is screaming for more airport capacity?

Thank you, Long Beach residents.

Unfortunately, the residents hate the airport with all their might. Look at these angry, unhappy people. I’d say if they stopped hating the airport, they might find some more happiness in their lives (Photo credit: presstelegram.com).

But over the years, the number of flights has been capped at Long Beach and they’re at their limit for jet flights. (Yes, there’s room for some regionals, but not that much.) When JetBlue came in a few years ago, they filled the place up. Now, along with a couple US Airways flights to Phoenix, Delta flights to Salt Lake, and Alaska flights to Seattle, the airport is “full” ish.

Anyone who has flown through LGB knows that the terminal situation is not ideal. If not, let me try to help you visualize. You drive up to see a cool art deco terminal building that looks very small. Check in is easy in the cramped building, but then you have to walk to one of two departure areas. These areas are basically double-wide trailers. They’re cramped due to the number of flights running through them, and there is just about nothing in the way of amenities. You’ll find a bathroom and a little snack/gift kiosk and that’s it. At peak times, it’s like a refugee camp where people just look for any place to rest.

So JetBlue and others have given up on trying to expand flights further for now, but they would like to provide a better environment for those people who are taking the existing flights. Plans have been in the works for a new terminal for a long time, but the City of Long Beach has done everything possible to make life difficult.

As noted here, the City Council finally took a vote the other day on which terminal plan to approve. Currently, there are 56,000 sq ft in the terminal area. Plans were floated to expand to anywhere from 67,000 to 118,000 sq ft. In the end, they went with 90,000 sq ft but not without a fight.

Now keep in mind, this only expands the terminal, not the number of flights. The limit will still remain the same, and with the exception of those regional flight slots, no future expansion can occur in that area. Yet even with that, the community is fighting this project tooth and nail. For example, the school district says that if they want to build the terminal, they have to soundproof their schools.

One woman showed up to protest because all the new flights in the last six years have caused her to develop asthma. She’d move if she could. My personal favorite is the woman who says there’s “soot raining down on [her] house.” And yes, her cat has asthma now. Arrrrrrrggggghhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!

Let’s get something straight here, champs. The flight limits have been in place for years. If you moved in without doing the research on what was allowed, that’s your own fault. And more importantly, this new terminal does NOT mean an increase in flights. It just makes for a better travel experience. Go home!

In the end, a plan did pass despite the cat’s asthma, but the terminal won’t be done until April 2011 anyway. The City Council has to give final approval as do the Planning Commission and, yes, the Cultural Heritage Commission. And now you know why this region is facing a crisis in airport capacity.