There’s some great news of out Los Angeles these days now that LA World Airports (LAWA) has finally decided to give up on bringing service to Palmdale Airport. Of course, some are unhappy about this, but it’s absolutely the right thing to do. And for that reason, I’m giving LAWA a big gold star.
For those who haven’t followed, I’ve written extensively about what a poor decision it was to focus on bringing regional flights to far-out Palmdale Airport, and I’m happy to see that others are now seeing the same thing. And they’re really not mincing words about it anymore.
“There is no viability in service at Palmdale,” said Mike Molina, senior director of government affairs for LAWA, which operates Los Angeles International, Ontario, Palmdale and Van Nuys airports.
“There’s no population up there to support it, and there’s no ground transportation linking the desert to downtown,” said Los Angeles City Councilman Bill Rosendahl, whose district includes LAX. “Until those things happen, Palmdale won’t work out.”
Wow, they sound shockingly wise with these quotes. The Mayor’s office tried to jump around the issue by saying that “the mayor has not backed away from Palmdale, but the national economy has.” Yeah, right. There has yet to be viable service at this airport. I don’t dispute that one day it will occur, and with the building of a new high speed rail line beginning, they have the opportunity to make this airport relevant again. But for now, it’s just not going to happen.
Now LAWA can refocus on putting its efforts toward LAX and Ontario, where spending money on service development is less likely to be a complete and total waste.
