New Entrant Carriers in Today's Environment 851981

Good afternoon, and thank you for the opportunity to address you today. I am Russell C. Widmar, Director of Airport Services for the Burbank-Glendale-Pasadena Airport Authority.

Because I have a long managerial association with airports, I feel qualified to offer my perspectives on the role of airports in today's national air transportation system. Though the fact of federal deregulation of the airline industry is probably well known to you, the actual impact of deregulation from an airport proprietor point of view is only now becoming apparent. My remarks today will attempt to relate the emerging realities of a deregulated air transportation industry from the airport proprietor's perspective.

Since experience simultaneously identifies our problems and serves as one of our best teachers, I will discuss the recent events at just one reliever airport - Burank-Glendale-Pasadena - to illustrate the important concerns airports now face, and some tactics which have been adopted to mitigate them. I must caution, however, that the tactics employed thus far are probably temporary and have been primarily defensive. The necessary lasting, reasonable, and meaningful measures have yet to be developed that provide future guidance for all the players, be they airport proprietors, aircraft operators, or the public.

The plain fact today is that each of these entities is posturing for a position totally satisfactory to themselves without much regard for the others without much regard for the others.

Because our time today is limited and the number and complexity of the problems high, I have chosen to focus on two key issues. The first is that of aircraft noise and its acceptability in an airport's community. The second is that of limited airport facilities and the exploding demand placed upon them by the deregulated environment. With respect to airport access the recent and unprecedented federal intervention in airline scheduling practices at six major eastern airports is illustrative and a harbinger of things to come. Though that scheduling problem really addresses itself to peak time air traffic control and runway limitations, similar problems exist in terms of parking, building space, gate and ground systems limitations. In short, the- growth brought on by deregulation is being felt everywhere. Let us now look at what has happened and will likely happen in the future.