An Old Battle Is Won, to Confounding Consequences

Van Nuys Airport, which opened in 1928, has been a battle zone for more than 30 years. A small but vocal group of the airport’s neighbors has made it their life’s work to fight every aspect of Van Nuys Airport.

Their goal: a parking lot instead of a runway, big-box stores instead of hangars.

In 1979 there were about 1,300 piston aircraft at Van Nuys Airport, which was also home to the California Air National Guard and its fleet of a dozen C-130 cargo aircraft. There were fewer than 20 jet aircraft. At that time, one homeowner complained constantly about “those pesky puddle jumpers.�

Today, the piston population is down to well under 400; the homeowner got his wish. In return however, Van Nuys Airport has become the business aviation center of the West Coast, home to more than 100 jet aircraft. I suspect that same homeowner would welcome back those pesky aircraft--if only the jets would go away. As homeowners will loudly claim, the jet aircraft rattle their windows and damage their quality of life, but they barely notice the puddle jumpers.

What brought on this transition? Homeowners complained, and politicians pandered to what they perceived to be a large voter pool. The city of Los Angeles, the airport landlord, constantly raised land rent rates, chasing away the puddle jumpers and sucking in an ever-growing fleet of jet aircraft.

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A $40-million jet operated by an aircraft charter service is used regularly to generate substantial income. This type of aircraft is a typical Van Nuys Airport-based jet, and the company operating it can pass its overhead costs, including land rent, through to its customers. Recreational pilots and those who use aircraft for small-business purposes do not have the option of passing land rent costs through to anyone. Now the piston airplanes that made Van Nuys Airport famous have been priced and pushed out.

Clearly, the city of Los Angeles discovered that it can make far more money at Van Nuys from jet operators instead of the piston aircraft. But the funds generated at the airport, as mandated by federal law, must be spent for airport-related improvements and expenditures.

The city has precipitated an unexpected consequence that confounds the homeowners and delights one segment of the airport users--the jet operators. The small group of residents who 20 years ago fought to reduce the number of piston aircraft at Van Nuys got exactly what they asked for. But in exchange, Van Nuys has become a jet-centered airport with many more complaints than back then.

Van Nuys became the world’s busiest general aviation airport, due mostly to the repetitive (and quiet) operations of those pesky puddle jumpers. They bothered no one except the few looking for a cause and a fight. Now that the complainers have achieved their first goal of reducing the number of piston aircraft at Van Nuys, they have refocused their complaints toward getting rid of the jets that their very own actions brought.

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Thank you, homeowner activists seeking a cause. You helped give the city a reason to price piston airplanes out of Van Nuys. Thank you, city of Los Angeles, for renting Van Nuys Airport property at many times what you charge for comparable land on golf courses and for park and recreation land, driving out the small aircraft and sucking in one of the largest fleets of private jets in the United States. Thank you, jet operators, for not only helping save Van Nuys Airport, but helping yourselves to nearly all of it. Finally, thank you piston airplane owners and operators, for giving up the fight and allowing the airport to be turned into a jetport unfriendly to those of us who populated it for 50 years. And the winner is--well, depends on your point of view.