Palomar Airport: The 2015-2035 Master Plan, Part 2, Blog 68

Last week’s blog noted that the County 2015-2035 Palomar Master Plan will likely focus on extending the runway 900 feet to increase Palomar’s corporate jet use and also discussed Palomar noise issues.

Today we focus on whether Palomar passenger traffic and its environmental impacts will increase.  How would Palomar passenger jumps affect your comments on the County PMP survey?

Palomar Passenger Enplanements

Since the mid 1950s, Palomar Airport has handled mainly small general aviation aircraft.   In 2013, Palomar served about 105,000 passengers.

In 2012, California Pacific Airlines [CPA] asked the FAA to certify a new air service at Palomar.  CPA hopes to serve 5 cities.   We don’t yet know if CPA will fly.  But the County is processing a CPA permit for CPA flights starting mid 2014.

As the 2013 County Runway Study noted, CPA (or any other new FAA certified air carrier) could start flying planes at Palomar carrying up to 80 passengers per plane.   No runway extension is needed for these planes (the Embraer 170).

A new Palomar air carrier could easily add nearly 1,000,000 passengers at Palomar per year. [1 flight per hour with 80 passengers per flight every 12-hour day adds 350,400 passengers per year.]

With such a new air carrier, Palomar Airport Blvd and El Camino Real would have to absorb substantially more traffic.   Such traffic brings congestion, smog, and noise.

Should You Care?

Like you, I like the convenience of using Palomar.  But at what cost?

I prefer to drive to Lindbergh or pay for a shuttle twice a year rather than have planes aplenty overhead every day.  I’d also like to drive on Palomar Airport Road and El Camino Real without more traffic and smog.  At today’s gas prices, I can pay for a few airport shuttles rather than sit idly in traffic. 

I visit former co-workers during the year.  One in Long Beach, one in Playa del Rey near LAX.   Listening to large aircraft rumble over their houses is not pleasant.

And before any member of my family uses Palomar, I want the County to first remove the safety and environmental problems that operating large passenger aircraft next to the Palomar methane-emitting  and linerless landfill causes.   Today, not just if the runway is extended.  See Carlsbad.Patch.com blogs 63 to 66 that discuss the County SCS Engineers Study landfill problems.

The Tie Breaker

Ok. You are on the fence.  Should you oppose Palomar expansion?  Are there any “tiebreaker” issues that may influence you?  Consider what Supervisor Bill Horn said  when asking the Board to approve the Palomar Airport Runway Extension Study:

“The San Diego County Airport Authority recently completed … the Regional Airports Strategic Plan or “RASP”, which analyzed several options to maximize the regional aviation capacity as a result of dwindling space and limited expansion options at Lindbergh Field.  In each of the scenarios analyzed within the RASP, it was taken as given that the Palomar Airport runway would be extended by 1,100 feet, despite the fact that the County currently has no such plans.” [June 14, 2011 Runway Study Board letter.]

In other words, the County plans a Palomar expansion not for local convenience but as a Lindbergh alternative.  Do you really want a regional airport in your backyard?  And if you pilot a small plane, do you want to be squeezed out by the corporate jets and passenger carriers?

Post Script:  On Valentine’s Day, a woman suffered serious burns to her legs when she was caught in a methane gas explosion in a Barcelona, Spain toilet cubicle.  The woman had to undergo skin graft operations on both her legs.  Flicking the bath light switch sparked the explosion.  Who knew that being a passenger on a 90,000 plane crashing at 150 knots into the Palomar landfill is less of a risk for a methane gas explosion than flicking the light switch in a bar bathroom?  See www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2559777/Woman-badly-burned-exploding-toilet-turned-bathroom.

Next Week:  Can Carlsbad voters vote on a Palomar Airport runway extension?