Airport runway reopens after plane's hard landing
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Airlines Are Retrenching, and Alternatives Are Slim
New York Times
December 26, 2011
By JOE SHARKEY
THE coming year will be a time of reckoning in business travel, as airlines reduce service at many airports and prospects fade for practical alternatives to flying, including the long-term promises of high-speed rail.
Consider the new realities of air travel. Competition is decreasing, fares are rising and airlines are adjusting routes (and charging extra fees) in ruthless calculations to extract the greatest possible revenue per mile flown.
Michael Boyd, the president of the consulting company Boyd Group International, sums up the phenomenon succinctly. “The cost of flying airplanes across the sky has eclipsed the ability to support it at many communities,” he said in a recent forecast. In 2012, he predicts, airlines will accelerate the mothballing of smaller 50-seat jets, the workhorses for connecting service between many midsize airports, and even some big ones.
Many airlines will continue shrinking overall capacity and trimming domestic routes in 2012, and the Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing of AMR, the parent company of American Airlines, will merely exacerbate the situation. In 2012, American will "ground some planes and resize our network," the company’s chief executive, Thomas W. Horton, recently told employees.
In addition, John P. Heimlich, the chief economist of the trade group Airlines for America, said, “Capacity reduction is one of the steps the industry is taking to preserve profitability.”
Some business travelers are driving more often on some trips for which they would once fly. But what about trains? I got a lot of enthusiastic reader reaction a couple of weeks ago, after I wrote about taking a pleasant overnight trip in a cozy sleeper compartment on Amtrak’s Silver Star from Tampa to New York City. The fare was $480.80.
Measured by time and money, that’s not remotely competitive with flying, where the best one-way fare I found for the same trip was $301, on a flight that takes about two and a half hours, airport to airport.
On the other hand, the train fare included four meals in the diner car, as well as the overnight accommodations. For business travelers like Gary Brown, a consultant, such a rail option sometimes works.
Last year, Mr. Brown took trains round-trip from Minneapolis to Tampa, with stops in Chicago and Washington. “Yes, a long, long ride, but I loved every minute of it,” he said.
Mr. Brown said the rail alternative could make sense on itineraries where the train was convenient even if time-consuming. With cutbacks that often require more connecting flights, and given the need to arrive at airports well before departure time, Mr. Brown says he often has to fly the day before a business meeting and “stay overnight if I’m to give my customers a full day of my consulting.”
He added, “With Amtrak, I can often spend the night on the train instead of in a hotel room.”
Ah, what a joy it would be if the trains in this country actually went to all the places we need to go. Since we’re dreaming, let’s add that it would be such a joy if the trains went there a lot faster, too — as in high-speed rail, which is usually defined as about 150 miles an hour or more.
Remember, my pleasant train trip from Tampa to New York City took 26 hours. Google Maps informs me that driving the same 1,125-mile route would take 19 and a half hours. The train is obviously more comfortable, but the fact is that the automobile goes faster, all things considered.
Alas, I predict 2012 will also be the year when we come to the collective realization that for the foreseeable future we may be stuck with the air, train and car transportation system as it is, given economics and politics.
Prospects are dim for improving existing train travel, let alone expanding it into national networks of high-speed intercity routes.
A week after my overnight train trip, the House Transportation Committee held another hearing on the rapidly dimming prospects for domestic high-speed rail. It focused on the most ambitious major project that is still alive, the proposed high-speed system linking California cities from San Francisco to San Diego. At a cost now estimated at $98.5 billion, that project, still in the planning phase, is already 13 years behind schedule.
It also appears to be as dead as the Concorde supersonic jet. The project is a “disaster” that’s “imploding,” said John L. Mica, the committee chairman who, like many other planners, now thinks our best bet for intercity rail service is to improve it in the one place where it demonstrably already works well, the Northeast Corridor between Boston and Washington.
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OC Register Jan. 7, 2012 Updated: Jan. 8, 2012
Airport runway reopens after plane's hard landing
John Wayne Airport: The runway was shut down until a private plane could be towed, officials said.
 By ELYSSE JAMES
/ THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER A runway at John Wayne Airport has reopened after a plane endured a hard landing Saturday afternoon.
The runway reopened at 5:48 p.m. after the Beechcraft Baron was towed
from the general-aviation runway, airport spokeswoman Jenny Wedge said.
The general-aviation runway was shut down after the private plane
landed with its nose gear up, meaning its front wheel was not extended.
The five people who were on board are safe, Wedge said.
The main runway that handles commercial airlines was not affected, Wedge said.
This is the second time this week that a private plane has had
problems with its nose gear at JWA's short runway. On Thursday
afternoon, the nose gear of a Cessna 172 collapsed as the plane landed.
Two people were on board but were not injured.
Contact the writer: 714-796-7949 or ejames@ocregister.com
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Santa Monica Airport pollution could prompt legislation, Lieu says
LA Times Dec 1 2011
Martha Groves
Lead, ultrafine particles and other aircraft emissions at Santa Monica Airport could pose health risks for residents in the surrounding neighborhoods, scientists said Wednesday evening at a hearing in West Los Angeles.
The studies are "highly disturbing," said state Sen. Ted Lieu (D-Torrance), chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Air Quality. Lieu said emissions could be exposing Westside residents, especially children, to potentially dramatic health effects, including lower IQs, asthma and bronchitis.
A standing-room-only crowd of about 120 Westside residents attended the hearing at the Felicia Mahood senior center, where researchers presented results from studies at or near LAX and Santa Monica Airport. The scientists included a medical doctor and researchers from UCLA, as well as representatives of the federal Environmental Protection Agency, the South Coast Air Quality Management District and the Los Angeles Unified School District.
Westside residents testified about their worries over noise and pollution. Laura Silagi of Venice spoke of hearing the "constant roar and drone of planes."
"Closure would eliminate all health risks," she said. "Close it down!" one woman in the audience shouted.
Lieu said the findings raised serious questions about the effects of the airport's operations on public health and quality of life. He added that his policymaking committee would explore whether to put forth legislation to curb possible ill effects.
Ian Gregor, a spokesman for the FAA, said Thursday that the agency had taken steps to limit emissions at the airport by, for example, telling pilots not to start their engines until shortly before takeoff.
He added that no one has yet made any formal emissions-reducing proposals for the agency to evaluate or comment on.
The city of Santa Monica contends that it will have more control over how the airport is used come 2015, when all leases at the property expire. But the FAA has vowed to battle to keep the airport going.
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