El Toro Cargo Plan Divides Area Businesses

While Orange County officials push a plan for commercial cargo flights at El Toro Marine Corps Air Station, some business leaders are expressing doubt whether local cargo service is needed.

Advocates of transforming the 4,700-acre surplus military base into a commercial airport say that air cargo demand will more than double by 2020 and that cargo flights will be an economic boon for the county, which now ships 96% of its goods from outside airports.

“The people who really support the airport are looking at it as jobs and revenue for Orange County,” said County Supervisor Jim Silva, an airport supporter.

A majority of the Board of Supervisors agrees, and last Tuesday the board directed staff to begin negotiations with the Federal Aviation Administration, the military and cargo carriers.

However, no potential agreements have been discussed with carriers to gauge their interest in using El Toro in 1999, when the Marines pull out. And there’s less than universal enthusiasm for cargo flights among local firms.

Key business leaders such as Western Digital, one of the world’s largest computer disk drive manufacturers, say the need for local cargo service has been exaggerated by airport supporters. Delays caused by shipping products through Los Angeles International Airport are insignificant, Western Digital spokesman Michael A. Cornelius said.

“For most companies, that’s not a real issue,” he said, adding that the negative impact a commercial airport would have on the quality of life in South County communities around the airport outweighs any possible benefits.

Even supporters of cargo flights from El Toro acknowledge the plan needs considerable research. They say it is premature to discuss the number of flights and how much cargo will be shipped.

“We are still in the planning process,” said Tom Wall, a member of the El Toro Airport Citizens Advisory Commission, which advises county officials on the airport project. “Everything that we develop now is going to be a projection. If we put together a proposal for leasing the airport, would the carriers commit? Frankly, we are still evaluating that.”

The proposed cargo flights are the latest flash point in the seething controversy over turning El Toro into a commercial airport, a plan that has divided residents and business in the county along north-south lines.

Although countywide voters have passed two ballot measures favoring a commercial airport, it is opposed by many in South County who believe an airport will pose safety problems, cause more noise and traffic and lower property values.

Why did county supervisors agree to move ahead with the cargo plan?

The answer may be the influence segments of the business community have had in pressing county officials to seek an airport with more cargo capacity. Three of the five supervisors sided with business leaders who say cargo capacity must be increased or Orange County businesses will lose their edge in the next century.

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Two key groups backing the cargo plan are the Orange County Business Council, the county’s largest coalition of businesses, and the El Toro Airport Citizens Advisory Commission, whose members include powerful businessman George Argyros.

“The economic benefit argument has been lost in the rhetoric” over the disputed plans to transform El Toro into a commercial airport, said Stan Oftelie, executive director of the Orange County Business Council. “It’s time to put the business issues back into the discussion.”

But like anything concerning El Toro, even the business community is divided over the effort to allow cargo flights.

Sources at the Irvine Co., which deals extensively with manufacturers and service companies seeking to rent in the Irvine Spectrum and other prime commercial areas developed by the giant landowner, say they are unaware of any groundswell of support for a cargo operation at El Toro.

“The business community is not monolithically for the airport,” said Laurie Casey, vice president of Irvine-based Rainbow Technologies. “Our needs are being met by current services.”

Casey co-founded the Orange County Business Coalition to counter the pro-airport business group. The coalition has about 50 member companies, all of which oppose an international airport at El Toro, Casey said.

She’s not the only one to question the need for local cargo service.

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Irvine-based Interpore International Inc. ships more than $1 million of its synthetic bone marrow each month, often by overnight air to get it into hospital operating rooms the next day. “But Federal Express handles it all for us, and we have no problems,” the company’s president, David Mercer, said.

“I don’t see how it would help us” to have an air cargo terminal at El Toro, Mercer said.

A representative of Fluor Corp., an international engineering and construction services giant headquartered in Irvine, said the company sees no benefit from air cargo flights at El Toro.

Even though Fluor is moving its offices south to Aliso Viejo in 1999 and will be about 15 miles farther from Los Angeles, shippers have told Fluor’s mailing department that the ability to fly cargo out of El Toro wouldn’t improve rates or the speed of service, spokeswoman Lisa Boyette said.

So far, only Federal Express has stated an interest in flying cargo at the airport.

“We are very excited about Orange County’s plans for El Toro,” Graham R. Smith, vice president in charge of Federal Express properties and facilities, stated in a letter to county supervisors. “The demand for air express services in Orange County has been very strong historically and there is no question this demand by businesses and individuals will continue to grow at a substantial pace.”

The Cargo Airline Assn., which represents more than a dozen cargo carriers, has told county officials it is interested in discussing the airport idea.

Other carriers, including UPS and the U.S. Postal Service, are uncommitted.

“This is too early for us to speculate,” said David Mazer, spokesman for the U.S. Postal Service Southern California region. “We have no position on El Toro.”

Supporters of cargo flights say their analysis of the county’s air cargo needs are based on projected market demand, not agreements with cargo companies.

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The county’s Preliminary Aviation Market Assessment projected that cargo demand will increase from 416,000 tons in 1994 to 1.6 million by 2020. County officials say $4.9 billion is lost annually by having cargo shipped from airports outside the county.

And, they point out, LAX will reach its cargo capacity by 1999.

Cargo proponents still face many obstacles, including Rep. Christopher Cox’s (R-Newport Beach) 1990 federal legislation prohibiting civilian aircraft from regularly using the runways until the Marines pull out.

Further, base commander Brig. General Robert Magnus has stated that it is “highly unlikely” the Marines would allow joint military and civilian use of the base.

Critics say the county is pushing swiftly on the cargo issue to get a foot in the door to transforming the base into a civilian commercial airport.

“The quicker they can get an airplane landing at El Toro, the sooner they can begin building an airport,” said Richard Dixon, chairman of the El Toro Reuse Planning Authority, the agency charged with developing a non-aviation plan for the base. “They are desperately trying to get that done.”

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Also contributing to this report were Times staff writer E. Scott Reckard and correspondent Jean O. Pasco.