Commentary : Remote Terminals the Ticket for Lindbergh?

The trip to Colorado Springs started badly. Fog had socked in Lindbergh Field, and, because it was a holiday weekend, the America West gate was jammed. People were sitting on the floor or standing elbow to elbow.

Weather delays will always be a part of air travel. But, as the minutes became hours, and it became obvious that I would miss my connecting flight in Phoenix, I started trying to imagine Lindbergh Field’s future:

If this is what it was like on a foggy day in 1989--the second consecutive year that the airport is expected to surpass its 10-million-passenger capacity--what will it be like on a foggy morning in 1999?

At first, it was fairly easy to be optimistic. The San Diego Unified Port District’s expansion plans--designed to tide the airport over until a new location can be found--would probably prevent gridlock, I figured.

But as a group of preteens behind me got louder, and I realized I had missed my connection in Phoenix, my thoughts grew pessimistic. Even if a new site for the airport had been found by 1999--a questionable premise given the obstacles facing all the logical alternatives--it would probably still be several years from opening. By then, Lindbergh would be handling 18 million passengers a year, according to those who make such calculations. I imagined O’Hare during a Christmas snowstorm.

Then, I learned that I would have a 3 1/2-hour layover in Phoenix.

A half-hour drive to Lindbergh, a two-hour wait and then a 3 1/2-hour layover. I could have driven almost all the way to Phoenix in that time. Perhaps putting San Diego’s airport in the desert--an idea mentioned only jokingly--might not be so bad after all. At least fog would be less of a problem.

By now a third of my weekend visit with my brother was shot. So, when I asked an attendant at Phoenix’s Sky Harbor Airport what I might do for 3 1/2 hours, the question sounded more like an indictment.

Her quick, friendly answer surprised me: Go to the end of the corridor, she said, and take the shuttle bus to Scottsdale, a suburb with plenty of shops. It will bring you back in time for your flight. No charge. You won’t even have to leave the terminal to get the bus.

She wasn’t kidding. The bus was parked on the tarmac, right next to a plane. I put my carry-on bag in a locker and boarded with about 10 other people. About 40 minutes later, I was at an America West remote terminal in Scottsdale, complete with ticketing and baggage-checking capabilities and 1,000 parking spaces.

I had an hour and a half to shop, the attendant at the Scottsdale terminal told me, before I had to catch one of the return buses, which leave every 30 minutes. I took her at her word, but started worrying that this much efficiency was too good to be true and that I would miss my flight to Colorado.

But the return trip went without a hitch, and my thoughts turned again to Lindbergh.

Perhaps a remote terminal like the one in Scottsdale would work in San Diego County, if it were made convenient enough. San Diego isn’t a hub like Phoenix, so visitors wouldn’t use it the way I had.

But maybe a remote terminal--in, say, North County or Golden Triangle--could help alleviate some of the pressure on Harbor Drive and on Lindbergh Field parking lots. It’s true that those are not the worst of Lindbergh’s problems, but remote terminals with parking lots could be used even after the airport finds a new home, whereas multimillion-dollar garages might have to be torn down if the airport is moved.

As a bonus, using shuttles from remote terminals would make a small dent in the region’s air pollution, which comes mostly from auto emissions.

For America West, the remote terminal is primarily a marketing device--a way to provide extra convenience for business passengers in particular, so they will keep coming back. It also saves passengers money. Parking at the Scottsdale terminal costs only $2 a day contrasted with $10 a day at the airport and $5 a day at nearby lots.

The city of Scottsdale, which supplied the land, hopes the terminal will help tourism.

The terminal has been open only three months, after an unsuccessful attempt to operate it from one of Scottsdale’s hotels. But early figures show it’s catching on. The number of travelers increased from 4,110 in January to 4,979 in March. And use of the parking lot went from 708 paid parking days to 3,640.

That’s too few to have an impact on airport parking yet. But the remote terminal has the potential to park 1,000 cars a day.

Airport shuttles, of course, are not new. Most major hotels have them. Satellite parking lots use them. In fact, the private parking lots lining San Diego’s Kettner Boulevard--with shuttles leaving every few minutes--are usually more convenient and less expensive than parking at the airport.

But airport planners say the popularity of these lots stems, in part, from the fact that they are within sight of the airport.

Apparently, the farther away a remote parking lot is from the airport, the less willing travelers are to use it, because they worry that something will go wrong, and the shuttle will not make it in time.

That doubt nagged at me while I walked around Scottsdale--and probably plays a role in why I don’t generally seek out shuttles when I travel. Also, the longer I live in Southern California (11 years now), the more addicted I become to my car.

But most other shuttles don’t include check-in and baggage handling, making them much less convenient.

Even Southern Californians can probably be seduced if group transportation is made easy and cheap enough.

For passengers heading to Scottsdale, there is an added convenience of being able to board the bus right on the tarmac and having their luggage loaded directly from plane to bus.

This is a sticking point for airport managers and Federal Aviation Administration officials responsible for security. But, if security problems could be worked out in Phoenix, they probably can be worked out elsewhere, too.

Shuttles are likely to become more a part of all of our lives in San Diego as the county continues to grapple with the traffic and air pollution consequences of growth.

America West is demonstrating that an efficient shuttle service can work, benefiting business as well as the community.

As the San Diego Unified Port District tries to decide how to provide more than 4,000 additional parking spaces that planners say will be needed at Lindbergh over the next 10 years, there may be some lessons to be learned from Phoenix and America West.