wigstheone
Jan 14, 02, 12:50 pm
LOS ANGELES, Jan. 13 — The inauguration of a flight connecting a distant Los Angeles suburb with Hermosillo, a provincial city in Mexico, would not seem cause for toasts and speeches. But Mayor James K. Hahn himself led the festivities recently at the Ontario, Calif., airport, saying he was making a point about the future.
The Los Angeles mayor used the event to kick-start his plan for resolving what many experts regard as a kind of slow-motion air travel crisis. With Los Angeles International Airport badly overburdened and the communities around it fighting its expansion, the mayor is pushing new routes to the area's smaller airports, like Ontario's.
But the real symbolism of the ceremony there may have come when that first Aeromexico flight prepared to depart: only 11 passengers showed up, a clear sign that this airport, about 30 miles east of downtown Los Angeles, is far from popular.
Even before Sept. 11, the Los Angeles region was facing enormous political and logistical problems with air travel, which is critical to its economic vigor. The terrorism crisis has only made the issue knottier. The sudden need for increased security has made any solution far more expensive. And the number of passengers has plunged since the attacks, creating uncertainty about just what the future needs will be.
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/01/14/national/14AIRP.html
The Los Angeles mayor used the event to kick-start his plan for resolving what many experts regard as a kind of slow-motion air travel crisis. With Los Angeles International Airport badly overburdened and the communities around it fighting its expansion, the mayor is pushing new routes to the area's smaller airports, like Ontario's.
But the real symbolism of the ceremony there may have come when that first Aeromexico flight prepared to depart: only 11 passengers showed up, a clear sign that this airport, about 30 miles east of downtown Los Angeles, is far from popular.
Even before Sept. 11, the Los Angeles region was facing enormous political and logistical problems with air travel, which is critical to its economic vigor. The terrorism crisis has only made the issue knottier. The sudden need for increased security has made any solution far more expensive. And the number of passengers has plunged since the attacks, creating uncertainty about just what the future needs will be.
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/01/14/national/14AIRP.html