Inaugural S. D.-London Air Service Meets Turbulence

British Airways said Thursday it will begin daily service from San Diego International Airport to London’s Gatwick Airport via Los Angeles June 1, but San Diego’s first air service to Europe has encountered turbulence.

U.S. Customs officials have told the carrier that incoming flights must clear customs in Los Angeles because Lindbergh Field’s facilities are inadequate.

Michael Fields, newly appointed customer services manager for British Airways in San Diego, said the move to provide San Diego-to-London service was a year in the making. He said the company was surprised to learn last month that Customs officials deemed Lindbergh inadequate to handle international flights.

“We don’t design or build airports,� he said. “We just fly into them.�

Doesn’t Meet Federal Requirements

Jerry Martin, a spokesman for the Customs Service in San Diego, said Lindbergh Field does not meet federal security requirements set out by Customs and the Immigration and Naturalization Service. The federal inspection service requirements, he said, include baggage belts, search rooms, holding cells, and a “sterile� area on the Tarmac to keep aircraft from international flights away from planes on domestic flights.

Martin said an elaborate computer system linking Customs inspectors to other law enforcement agencies for security checks would have to be in place, and that alone would take at least six months to install.

“We have to look at future growth,� Martin said. “If we allow one aircraft, then why can’t we allow a second one and a third? We have to be fair. We can’t discriminate from one carrier to another.�

Martin said Los Angeles International Airport has the personnel and facilities to handle the San Diego-bound flights from London in addition to its other international flights.

Outbound No Problem

Outbound flights from Lindbergh would not pose a problem, since they would simply stop briefly in Los Angeles to pick up passengers and travel non-stop to London, Fields said. The problem is with incoming international flights, which would have to stop in Los Angeles and clear Customs there before continuing to San Diego. The wait to clear customs in Los Angeles, Fields said, could take two hours.

Resorts, a Costa Mesa-based airline that was planning direct flights between Lindbergh Field and Cabo San Lucas, Loreto and La Paz in Baja California, was also denied Customs clearance here last month, marketing director Paula Delshadi said. She said passengers now go through Customs in Los Angeles.

“We may even consider not flying out of San Diego only because we don’t want to inconvenience our customers by having them clear Customs in L.A.,� Delshadi said.

Fields said the British Airways representatives are talking with Customs officials and the San Diego Port District, which runs the airport, in the hopes of resolving the matter.

“We are not here to assign blame on anybody,� he said. “The point is: Is Lindbergh Field an international airport or not?�

Deputy Mayor Gloria McColl, who attended Thursday’s press conference to announce the San Diego-London service, said that the city is “anxious� to have the direct flights to Europe and that Mayor Maureen O’Connor and the City Council will look into the problem.

“We have good representation in Washington, D.C., and we will be working on the problem with the port commissioners,� she said.

Last Service in 1981

Bud McDonald, Lindbergh Field manager, said there have been no regularly scheduled international flights out of the airport since Western Airlines discontinued service between San Diego and Mexico City in 1981.

McDonald said the airport will not make the structural modifications demanded by Customs for the small number of passengers expected to travel the San Diego-London route at first.

“If, five years from now, we get 10 other airlines coming in here with 10 international flights a day, then that’s another ballgame,� McDonald said. “But we’re not going to reinvent the wheel for about 50 passengers a day.�

Despite the possible inconvenience on the return flight, Marcia Bradley, British Airways sales manager in San Diego, said nearly 600 seats have been booked for the 12 1/2-hour flight from San Diego to London via Los Angeles for June alone.

The DC-10s and 747s will depart daily at 6:10 p.m. and arrive at Gatwick Airport at 2:15 p.m., London time, the next day. Flights to San Diego will leave London at 11:15 a.m. and arrive here at 4:10 p.m., San Diego time, the same day.