Officials: Businesses need more runways

By: KATHERINE MARKS - Staff Writer | Wednesday, November 17, 2004 11:12 PM PST ∞

DEL MAR ---- San Diego County companies looking to expand may have to look elsewhere if a new airport isn't built in the coming decades, business leaders from both sides of the country said Wednesday.

"You've got one (runway at Lindbergh Field). You absolutely must do something about that or I think you will be at serious risk," said James Wilding, former president and chief executive officer of the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority, speaking to a group of San Diego business leaders. The authority oversees operations at Washington Dulles International Airport and Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport.

Wilding and Thomas Morr, managing partner for the Greater Washington Initiative, addressed a luncheon at the San Diego Marriott about the successes of the Washington metropolitan area in attracting technology companies, which they said was boosted by the expansion of Dulles in the 1980s. Both men were instrumental in the effort.

Dulles is about 25 miles outside the nation's capital and National is four miles from the city on the banks of the Potomac River.

Wednesday's luncheon was part of a series of public forums the San Diego County Regional Airport Authority is holding as it searches for a site for a new regional airport. The authority held a workshop last week in Borrego Springs and put fliers in daily newspapers on Wednesday and today detailing the constraints at Lindbergh Field, the nation's busiest single runway airport. The airport is expected to exceed its capacity by 2012.

The authority is required by state law to submit an airport site recommendation for a countywide vote by 2006.

Morr and Wilding said the challenges that San Diego County faces are different than those in the Washington region. There the two airports competed for funding and Dulles was not used to its full potential until after a lengthy campaign in the 1980s.

Business leaders lobbied to improve roads and get a toll road to the airport built. They also helped increase the number of airlines willing to fly out of the airport and led a marketing campaign to get the public interested in using Dulles instead of National. The airport is similar in size to Lindbergh Field, but has three runways. They succeeded and the area, once farmland, is now a booming technology hub. The two airports serve 34 million people annually.

A third international airport in Maryland also serves the Washington-Baltimore metropolitan area, bringing the total number of runways in the region to nine with three more in the works, the men said. That gives the region an edge and attracts businesses that need easy access to international flights.

Duane Roth, who works for UC San Diego Connect, said the technology industry is well cemented in San Diego County. But as big companies look to grow, they could eye other markets with better airports. Connect helps inventors get their ideas funded.

"If you can't operate efficiently, you're going to find other places to do it," he said.

The sites currently under review for a new regional airport are the March Air Reserve Base in Riverside County; two sites at Miramar Marine Corps Air Station in San Diego; Camp Pendleton, north of Oceanside; North Island Naval Air Station in Coronado; an unspecified location in the Imperial County desert; the existing downtown San Diego airport; a site in Anza Borrego, 95 miles northeast of the existing airport and a site in Campo, 75 miles east of the airport.

A site in the Cleveland National Forest is being evaluated and could be added to the list.

Contact staff writer Katherine Marks at (760) 740-3529 or kmarks@nctimes.com.

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