Things are bit slow at the recently reopened Palmdale Regional Airport. Since reopening in late December, the airport has attracted just two 19-seater commuter flights a day to Las Vegas.
But the Air Force could be coming to the rescue.
Los Angeles World Airports, which manages the facility, is trying to get the Air Force and Antelope Valley’s military contractors to consider Palmdale as an alternative to Los Angeles International Airport, said Mark Thorpe, a spokesman for the city-owned agency.
The Air Force spends $3.4 million a year flying personnel from its Antelope Valley facilities through LAX, according to LAWA data. Much of the cost lies with rental cars for the 200-mile round trip from LAX to Edwards Air Force Base. An estimated 800,000 man-hours are lost in travel time.
Edwards is only 40 miles from the Palmdale airport. Air Force Plant 42, a research facility where the Stealth Bomber was created and where portions of the Joint Strike Fighter are being assembled, is right next to it.
Defense contractors Lockheed Martin Corp., Boeing Co., Northrop Grumman Corp. and Raytheon Co. also have facilities in Palmdale next to Plant 42.
Thorpe said just one of these companies generates an estimated 4,000 roundtrip flights per year from this area, or about $2.3 million in air travel.
“If you had Antelope Valley sitting out in the middle of Iowa, airlines would be all over it,” Thorpe said.
Much of the area’s military travel consists of personnel flying from one base to another, but military planes don’t fly people point-to-point wherever they want to go, Thorpe said. So they usually fly commercial airlines.
The federal Military Traffic Management Command determines which airports personnel can fly from, and right now the only approved local airports are LAX and Ontario, said John Haire, acting director of public affairs, Air Force Flight Center at Edwards Air Force Base.
“You can’t just pick an airport on your own,” he said.
The Air Force does not dispute LAWA’s estimates, but has to first put together estimates of its own, Haire said. “The Air Force doesn’t do anything without doing feasibility studies, contingency studies,” he said. “People are talking about it, and that’s where it’s at. As far as I know, nobody’s ordered a study done.”
Thorpe met with 14 airlines last year in LAWA’s campaign to resume service to Palmdale.
Las Vegas-based Scenic Airlines, known mostly for its Grand Canyon tours, was the first airline to sign up. It is receiving 12 months of free rent of airport facilities, plus $75,000 in marketing assistance. Palmdale is offering the same free-rent deal to any airline that signs on this year.
LAWA data show that Albuquerque is the top destination for military and related travel out of the Antelope Valley, followed by Baltimore, San Antonio, Washington and El Paso, Texas.
But Palmdale’s location relative to LAX, Burbank and Ontario, combined with its dormancy for seven years, have kept it off the radar.
Thorpe said he’s targeting American Eagle Airlines, the regional carrier based in Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport, to be the next carrier to sign up with Palmdale. Until Thorpe contacted executives last year, the airline hadn’t even heard of Palmdale, he said.
“A lot of airline people work on the East coast or in Dallas places where traffic moves or cities have public transportation,” Thorpe said. “People look at 80 miles and don’t realize it could take more than 2 & #733; hours. How many times have I seen eight miles of standing traffic on the 14?”
