Tuesday 7-29-08

Miami Air 737-8Q8(W) arrived as BSK661 from PAKT (Ketchikan) at 9pm. The plane was carrying fisherman and their catch. The plane departed as BSK536 to SAT at 10pm. The plane did a reduced power takeoff and was slow and quiet.

Parking plans for Long Beach Airport delayed

By Joe Stevens, Staff Writer
Article Launched: 07/26/2008 09:34:16 PM PDT

LONG BEACH - As the airline industry flies through turmoil, the Long Beach Airport is being affected, but instead of losing a major percentage of revenue like other airports, the main effect is the delay in plans to build a parking structure and renovate the terminal.

"Calling our plans `a process' is appropriate," Assistant Airport Manager Christine Edwards said. "Six months ago, I could give you a timeline on what we'd like to do. But the industry has changed so much during that time, that our situation has changed, too. We're going to have to be more deliberate and careful, understanding what the airlines are going through."

Earlier this month, Edwards addressed City Council and explained that building a new parking garage may require up to $65 million in bonds. But the exact cost is unknown because the garage is in the preliminary design phase.

Edwards also presented a plan to renovate and expand the L.B. Airport's terminal from 56,000 square feet to 90,000. To do that, it was estimated, would take between $50 million and $65 million in bonds.

The plan with the terminal is not as pressing as the parking garage because half of the airport's parking spots, about 2,300 spaces, are on Boeing property. Boeing is considering renovating those spots, but a plan to do that is not imminent.

Edwards is hoping to keep both the parking structure and terminal expansion plans moving forward, despite the expected delay.

"The next step with City Council would be a proposal to issue bonds," she said. "But that's at least six months away, and maybe 12 months away."

Beyond the parking structure and terminal changes, the Long Beach Airport is running relatively well because all 41 of its commercial flight slots have been filled and running since May. This is the first time all of those slots have been filled since the early 1990s.

It also is arguably the most efficiently the commercial slots have been running, because the aircraft in those slots average 140 passengers, which is more than the aircraft in the '90s.

Furthermore, JetBlue Airlines has 28 of the slots and has asked the airport for control of the other slots, if they become available. Last week, JetBlue announced it would cut flights from Ontario and Los Angeles International Airports. When it did that, a JetBlue representative reinforced to Edwards the importance of the L.B. Airport to the company and that it wouldn't be cutting flights.

One of the problems the airport is facing, though, is with its commuter slots. ExpressJet Airlines will be ending its branded flights as of Sept. 2 and will stop use of its six commuter slots that offer the only Long Beach flights to Reno/Tahoe, Fresno and Monterey. In essence, ExpressJet controls 8.8 percent of the flights out of Long Beach.

US Airways also recently told the L.B. Airport that it will relinquish its lone commuter slot in the fall. So there will only be five of 25 commuter slots filled in the fall, and all of those are controlled by Delta Air Lines.

"Because of the high cost of fuel, there's been a real shake-out with smaller aircraft," said Chris Kunze, the airport's interim director. "When there are planes that seat 50, it's hard to recover costs with how high fuel is. Still, I'm confident that we'll fill the commuter slots. The only question is whether it will be in two years, five years or 10 years."

Kunze is also the airport's former director. He retired from that post and moved into a part-time consulting role in January 2007. At that time, Christine Andersen took over the director's position, but she left last month to become the director of public works for the city of Santa Barbara.

Kunze says Edwards is a strong candidate to replace Andersen, and the city will conduct a national search for the position. The hope is that it is filled by November.

No matter who takes that airport job, though, that person is poised to lead a facility that continues to be busy.

"We're very confident that if any of our airlines in the commercial slots pulls out, that another airline would step in," Edwards said. "In the current market, maybe there is a concern that there could be a some time before that happens, but it will happen. The underlying market here is just so strong that airlines want to be here."

Friday 7-25-08

For the second time in a week, Alaska Airlines MD-83 N977AS had a mechanical and on the same flight numbers as before(AS548/AS545). This time MD-83 N972AS was brought down to do the turn and N977AS once again remained overnight.

Tail numbers noted at Gulfstream: P4-TPS, CS-DKJ, CS-DKK, N490QS, 01-0030(US Air Force).

JetBlue won't cut any flights in L.B.

By Andy Franks, Staff Writer
Article Launched: 07/23/2008 10:02:44 PM PDT

As JetBlue Airways announced cutbacks elsewhere in the Southland on Wednesday, the carrier said it had no such plans at Long Beach Airport, where it is the busiest airline.

The airline is pulling its only service flight from Ontario, a nonstop to John F. Kennedy International Airport, after Labor Day.

It's the second such cutback by a major airline in as many days. United Airlines, the second-busiest carrier at Los Angeles International Airport, announced Tuesday that it would slash about 20 percent of its Southern California schedule, or about 40 flights a day, including nonstop service to Frankfurt and Hong Kong.

Sharon Diggs-Jackson, a spokeswoman for Long Beach Airport, said that correspondence with JetBlue doesn't indicate a plan to cut services.

Sebastian White, a JetBlue spokesman, confirmed that, saying that a flight reduction for the airport would not be advantageous.

"We certainly have no plans to cut anything in Long Beach - it's not advantageous," he said. "Long Beach does great for us, and we're pretty committed to it."

The news also comes just weeks after ExpressJet, which offered Long Beach Airport's only flights to Reno/Tahoe, Fresno and Monterey, said it would cut its flights starting in September due to rising fuel costs.

JetBlue is currently the busiest airline at Long Beach Airport, using 28 of its 41 available daily flight slots, the maximum allowed at the airport.

The airline operates 10 exclusive flight destinations at Long Beach, including Las Vegas, New York and Oakland. In addition to its 28 contracted slots, the airline currently uses two underutilized Alaska Airline slots, which they accepted in early June to use through September.

Travel from Long Beach Airport has been "holding steady," according to Diggs-Jackson, seeing only a 4 percent decrease in passenger traffic for June, and saying that the next indicator will be post-Labor Day travel patterns.

In JetBlue's quarterly report on Tuesday, executives announced a "flat-growth" plan, with neither plans to expand nor cut services for the remainder of the year. JetBlue recently added a new route to Long Beach Airport from Portland, Ore., that will start in September.

JetBlue first came to Southern California when it added the flight at Ontario in 2000, with later additions at Long Beach Airport in 2001, San Diego International Airport in 2003 and Burbank's Bob Hope Airport in 2005.

JetBlue has expanded at the Long Beach and Burbank airports for years, and announced last February the introduction of several flights at LAX - 3 to JFK and 1 to Logan International Airport in Boston.

During a stockholder's meeting in May 2007, then JetBlue Chief Executive Officer David Neeleman actually cited Ontario, along with LAX, as a possible site for expansion in the region. Those plans, however, appear quashed.

The cutbacks will "have an economic impact on this region," Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said. "We're making many improvements at the airport. Those airport improvements are funded by the airline industry, so to the extent that this is having an impact, it will have a reverberating impact across the board."

The mayor called JetBlue's decision to leave Ontario a "devastating blow." "The whole regionalization of the airport is predicated on us moving more traffic out toward Ontario Airport," he said. Ontario and LAX are operated by Los Angeles World Airports, a Los Angeles city agency.

In all, the Ontario Airport is expected to lose 37 percent of its flights in the fall, making it one of the nation's hardest hit by an industry-wide rush to cut flights amid soaring fuel costs.

JetBlue reported losses in its second quarter, along with United and American airlines, which totaled $7 million, compared with a year-ago profit of $21 million, or 11 cents per share.

Monday 7-21-08

Skywest CRJ200 N463SW was seen wearing the new DL colors. It arrived at 2:20pm and departed at 3:11pm.

Gulfstream G-IV(SP) N700NY arrived from SDM at 5:45pm and parked at Signature.

Gulfstream G450 N415QS was towed from Signature to Gulfstream at 3:55pm.

UPS brought in another 757 today. The plane arrived from SDF as UPS2916 at 5:24pm. The plane departed to RFD at 7:49pm as UPS909.

Gulfstream G-IV(SP) N7799T arrived at 6:48pm from MCO and parked at Airflite. The plane departed at 8:05pm headed to Kahului(PHOG) only to return 15 minutes later with fire and police standing by. Not sure what the problem was but he had to be going atleast 170kts when he touched down. He then taxied over to Airflite.

Sunday 7-20-08

Gulfstream G550 N709DW arrived from SDM at 5:10pm and parked at Gulfstream.

Continental Airlines 737-824(W) arrived as COA1901 from SEA at 8:25pm and parked at Signature. They dropped off the Cleveland Indians baseball team. The plane departed at 9:20pm as COA1933 to ONT.

Alaska Airlines MD-83 N977AS had a fuel leak on the left wing and did not depart and will remain overnight. MD-83 N944AS arrived at 9:20pm from SEA as AS548 and departed with the stranded passengers at 10:27pm as AS545 back to SEA.

Saturday 7-19-08

A US Army Gulfstream C-20 91-0108 arrived at 4:45pm and parked at Gulfstream.

JetBlue Airways A320 N712JB "Enough about me....let's talk about blue" arrived at 7pm.

Tail numbers noted at Gulfstream: N797BD, N470QS.

Friday 7-18-08

Tail numbers noted at Gulfstream: N569CW, N950SW, N203GA(green), N851LE, N217RR(departed on a test flight at 4:35pm and returned at 4:41pm), N785QS.

AIRPORT Runway Resurfacing Project July 21-26, 2008

Please be advised that from July 21 to 26, 2008, the Airport will be resurfacing Taxiway Delta. From Monday, July 21 through Wednesday, July 23rd, 7:00 am to 6:00 pm there will be increased truck along Clark Ave., between Spring Street and Willow Ave.

On Thursday, July 24 and Saturday, July 26, there will be increased truck traffic along Spring Street, between Lakewood Blvd. and Redondo Ave., between the hours of 10:00 pm and 5:00 am.

**This information was supplied by Airport Public Affairs, please feel free to contact us at 562 570-2678, if you need additional details.

Long Beach Airport's future discussed

By Paul Eakins, Staff Writer
Article Launched: 07/15/2008 10:06:31 PM PDT

LONG BEACH - Planned terminal improvements and construction of a new parking garage at the Long Beach Airport shouldn't be impeded by airlines' financial woes nationally, city officials said Tuesday.

But officials said they are keeping an eye on the industry's cutbacks, and some council members warned against the city getting in over its fiscal head.

Assistant Airport Manager Christine Edwards presented the council with a report that says the city will have to raise passenger fees and parking rates if it is to finance bonds to pay for the projects.

Between $50 million and $65 million in bonds will be needed to expand the terminal from 56,320 square feet to 89,995 square feet as planned, the Airport Finance Overview report says.

Building the parking garage may require up to another $65 million in bonds, the report says.

However, the ultimate cost of the terminal and garage projects is still unknown because they are in the preliminary design phase, Edwards said.

"We don't know yet that this is the magic number," she said.

The report says that the airport's cost for each person who boards a plane would increase from $5 to between $9.50 and $11 to finance $50 million in bonds for the terminal construction. For a $65 million bond, the fee would increase to between $12 and $15, the report says.

To fund the new parking structure with up to another $65 million in bonds, parking rates would increase from $1 to $2 per hour, and from $17 to $19 daily in the existing parking garage, the report says. Once completed, the new parking structure would have a parking fee of $15 per day.

Edwards said that one of the airport's weaknesses is that JetBlue makes up 79 percent of the passenger market, which means if the airline should falter as many others have, the city could see airport revenues drop.

But, she said the airport is well positioned to attract other providers.

"If JetBlue went away, it would just be a matter of time" before other airlines moved in, she said.

In fact, JetBlue is expanding its operations, and is expected to announce today a new destination from Long Beach, Edwards said.

City Manager Pat West said he recognizes that the airline industry "is in a state of turmoil right now."

"We'll be taking that into consideration as we move forward," West said.

But while West and Edwards seemed confident that the airport project could move forward as planned, Councilwoman Rae Gabelich suggested officials should consider completing it in increments.

"I just encourage you and encourage everyone on this council to move extremely cautiously so that we don't find ourselves in a problem area," Gabelich said.