Airport answers: WHAT?????

Airport answers: MOU, unknown, Las Vegas, Yelp, and JetBlue did not rotate slots

LB Airport responds to neighborhood follow-up questions with its own "alternate facts"

At the December 2016 City Council Airport Study Session, 8th District Councilman Al Austin submitted questions to the Airport Director concerning Jacobs'  Feasibility Study on the international terminal (FIS).  When those answers were made public, 4th District Councilman Daryl Supernaw asked if any of his constituents had follow-up questions about the airport's answers.

On January 10, 2017 neighborhood leaders of the Los Altos Center Adjacent Neighborhoods (LACAN) submitted numerous follow-up questions.  Long Beach Airport Director Jess Romo answered those questions in an email today January 23, 2017-one day before January 24, 2017. Below is a synopsis of the important points in the Airport Director's responses.

The Airport could not provide a process on how to close a FIS facility if no major carrier flies international from LB

According to the Jacobs Study, only JetBlue is interested in an international terminal at Long Beach Airport.  In his answer to Councilman Austin as to what would happen to the FIS facility it "it is not used in the future", the Airport Director responded that the Homeland Security customs personnel would be "redeployed"  and the "FIS would be repurposed" .

LACAN asked the follow-up question "What is the process for a FIS facility being shut down?" Romo's answer was that the process to close the FIS would be "detailed in a Memorandum of Understanding between the City and the Department of Homeland Security, if the FIS Project is approved to move forward".

So according to the Airport Director, the plan if JetBlue stops flying internationally or leaves Long Beach is that the Airport plans to have a memorandum with Homeland Security to close an FAA-approved facility. 

Currently, the FAA is threatening Santa Monica over its plans to close its airport:  FAA threatens to sue Santa Monica

When Fresno-Yosemite International lost its only international carrier it was forced to keep the international terminal open and pay for  a terminal without a carrier. Months later, a start-up Mexican carrier started a few weekly flights.

Airport admits:

No known examples of repurposing a FIS facility

LACAN asked Director Romo; "What are the most recent occurrences in the U.S. of a FIS facility being shut down?"

Director Romo replied "Unknown".

In response to the LACAN question "If any FIS facilities were shuttered, what was the FIS repurposed into?

Director Romo replied " No known examples of FIS facility repurposing. However, it is common practice for Airport facilities to be adaptively re-used."

No data about the economic benefits of domestic vs. international flights

In response to a LACAN question about the cost-benefit of domestic vs international flights -similar to Mayor Garcia's concerns, the Airport Director's answer included:

"The scope of the Feasibility Study did not include a benefit/cost analysis or a comparative analysis between domestic or international flights".

Airport denies JetBlue's  "slot rotation" or "slot squatting"

One of the concerns raised in numerous public meetings from Mayor Garcia, Councilman Supernaw and Councilman Al Austin was the practice of JetBlue not to fly all of its LGB flight slots by using a practice of "rotating" its slots or as Councilman Austin called it "slot squatting".  That practice harmed the income of  LGB and was only discontinued when Southwest came to LGB and demanded the unused JetBlue slots.  

In March 2016, Mayor Garcia met with neighbors at the Los Altos Center Bagelry & Bistro and directly discussed his views about JetBlue and the airline's lack of competition allowing slot rotation.

In response to a question by LACAN regarding the fiscal harm JetBlue's well-documented and well-known "slot rotating" or "slot squatting", Airport Director Romo wrote:  "JetBlue has not rotated allotted slots but utilized them within the guidelines of the resolution, Any potential shortage in revenue is recovered through higher rates and charges to the air carriers"

The airport cannot back up FIS convention business

In response to Mayor Garcia, Councilman Austin and the LB Convention and Visitor Bureau's concerns about domestic vs international flights' impact on LB convention business, the Airport in its response to Councilman Austin's original questions wrote that it was "speculative" domestic flights were better for LB Convention business.  The Airport replied that the Jacobs Study did not "specifically analyze convention traffic from Latin America" and added that " LGB is not aware of data concerning origin and destinations of convention traffic" and "Assuming opportunities for convention traffic from Latin America is speculative"  .

In response to a LACAN question on what potential  Mexican convention business is located in the Mexican resort towns, the Airport replied: "Not all forecasted destinations are tourist towns" and cited Mexico City, Guadalajara, and Panama City. 

The only two cities JetBlue currently flies to in Mexico is Mexico City and Cancun.  Click on JetBlue flights

Mexico City airport currently is not allowing any further flights and JetBlue does not service Panama City.  The U.S. State Department has issues travel warnings for Americans traveling to Panama: Click on U.S. Tourists to Panama warnings

LB compared to Las Vegas, Seattle and Boston in study as "like" markets

LACAN asked what cities ("like markets") were used to evaluate the Long Beach tourist rate to the "historical data of like markets" data that was quoted in the airport answers to Councilman Austin's Question #26.

Airport Director Romo wrote:

"Distribution between origination and destination passengers for a majority of the forecasted international markets is comparable to the Las Vegas market..."

Mr. Romo's answer went on to explain two exceptions to Las Vegas: "Guadalajara is comparable to the Seattle market" and "Panama City is comparable to the Boston market"

In the LACAN question related to the answer to Councilman Austin's Question #2 that states about the FIS that "most of the traffic is expected to be outbound"   Director Romo writes: "Similar to the predominately outbound Las Vegas market, every passenger departing from LGB has an economic footprint".

The airport uses Yelp for data on inbound tourists

The LACAN question "What data shows that any inbound tourist traffic would choose LGB over LAX?   Airport Director Romo replied:

"The scope of the study did not include a survey of passenger preference between local airports. However, the current Yelp rating for LGB is 4.5 stars versus 2.5 stars for LAX."

Yelp does not exist in South America. It arrived in Mexico in August of 2014 but was unable to capture many followers. 

In November 2015, Yelp announced it was pulling out of international markets except for Canada.

Click on YELP Leaves international markets