Maybe they should just call it the "Los Angeles Airport of Palmdale." As you may have read, Los Angeles World Airports -- the agency charged with running LAX -- is planning on renaming the Palmdale and Ontario airports (which it also runs).
That means Palmdale will soon be known as LA/Palmdale regional airport, while Ontario Airport will now be known as LA/Ontario.
Airport officials hope the namechange will jumpstart plans to bring new airlines into Palmdale, which has sat virtually empty for years. And the Ontario namechange is meant to end confusion with the Canadian province of the same name.
Of course, instead of confused travelers landing in the Inland Empire wondering how to get to Toronto, confused travelers may now land in Ontario and wonder how close they are to the beach. (Answer: You're not.)
More details from the L.A. Times:
The city's Airport Commission recently voted unanimously to make the change in Ontario, which people outside California often confuse with Ontario, Canada. Commissioners also altered the name of another Los Angeles facility, located about 65 miles north of LAX in the Antelope Valley, to LA/Palmdale Regional Airport.
Officials hope that using Los Angeles' name also will help persuade carriers to add flights at the facilities. In Palmdale, the airport agency's terminal has languished for years, with only one airline offering scheduled commercial service there since 1998. Scenic Airlines, a sightseeing company with flights to Las Vegas, pulled out in February, saying it wasn't making any money.
The agency expects a much-discussed push to spread air traffic out among the region's airports to finally take off this year.
This month airlines will submit proposals to offer flights from Palmdale, where officials plan to use a $900,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation, as well as discounted terminal rent, to subsidize flights. Los Angeles officials have referred to the airport as Palmdale Regional since it opened in June 1971.
"We are looking to position this facility to be a viable airport," said Palmdale Mayor James C. Ledford Jr. "We're one of the few communities that I know of that wants an airport."
Los Angeles airport officials are also in negotiations to land major new air service at Ontario. For about three years, the airport agency has advertised the facility to Southern Californians as LA/Ontario International Airport, but it wanted to make the name official to more aggressively promote the airport nationwide. The facility has been known as Ontario International since the city of Los Angeles signed an agreement with Ontario officials to operate it in 1967. It is about 40 miles east of downtown Los Angeles.
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