February 18, 2005

San Diego Needs a New Airport to Connect to the World

Union-Tribune Op-Ed by ASAP21 on February 18, 2005

By WALTER M. SCHIRRA

    The many times I looked at Earth from outer space, one thing struck me. I couldn?t see any boundaries, but I could see jet contrails, ship?s wakes and rail lines. They all caught the sunlight and stood out against this marvelous blue-and-green orb we live on.

    In other words, I couldn?t see what supposedly separates us, but I could see the connections.

    I tell people that I always came back to Earth because I didn?t find anywhere else to go. That?s how I feel about San Diego, now that I live here. But in traveling all over the world since I left NASA, I have found this to be true ? it?s difficult to figure out how to connect from San Diego.

    Why? Because our current airport is too small, too inconveniently located in the middle of our busiest metropolitan center and too limited in the air service options it can accommodate.

    As an aviator, a traveler and someone who has served on the boards of a few airlines, I am clear that San Diego needs a new airport. Since it takes 10 to 15 years or more to get a new airport on line, and our current airport will become severely constrained in that same 10 to 15 years, San Diego needs to get off its butt, so to speak, right now. Otherwise, we will be less connected to the rest of the world, to our collective detriment.

About Air Connections
    I may have a genetic predisposition to be focused on air (and space) travel, since my father flew in World War I, and he and my mother barnstormed for years. In fact, until she was pregnant with me, she would routinely walk out on the wing while he flew the plane.

    After graduating from the U.S. Naval Academy, I entered Naval Flight Training in Pensacola, and have been up in the air pretty much since then.

    After my retirement from the Navy and NASA, I became president of Regency Investors, Inc., a Colorado company that specialized in leasing heavy equipment, including jet aircraft. One of our deals involved a 747 leased to Braniff airlines for round-trip flights between Dallas and Honolulu. We called it the ?tick-tock? route because all that 747 did was fly back and forth between those two places. It connected two places that people traveled between.

    How is San Diego different? It?s not that well connected.
    As one example, my family owns a home in Kauai. To get there, we have to travel to Los Angeles (we tend to drive, since that only takes two hours, and traveling downtown, then flying takes longer). From there, we can fly nonstop round-trip to Kauai. Granted, there are now nonstops from San Diego to Maui, but not to Kauai. Will we keep adding nonstops at our existing airport? Not likely. At least not for long.

    To get an even better sense of San Diego?s relative lack of airline connections to the rest of the globe, take a hard look at the OAG Executive Flight Guide. I always carry one in case I need to change my travel plans, or a flight is cancelled. The lists of flights to and from various airports around the world is instructive ? especially when you look at San Diego compared to similar metropolitan centers, such as Tampa, Florida. We are comparatively ?isolated? in terms of air travel connections.

    Whether or not you agree that San Diego?s continuing economic development, future standard of living and quality of life are dependent on a new airport ? the business argument ? you must conclude that we are insufficiently connected for convenient travel to almost anywhere. The way to address that is to build a new airport.

Future Connection Opportunities?
    An interesting fact is that San Diego is further east than Las Vegas, much less Los Angeles. That makes it difficult to imagine that we will ever have a hub airport for Pacific Rim air service. While it is not impossible, there are other connections that might make more sense.

    Perhaps we should focus on more air traffic from San Diego going south (and coming this way). Adding nonstops to various points in Mexico is one logical opportunity.

Then consider South America. Today, to get from San Diego to South America, you have to go all the way east to Miami, then go south. What sense does that make?

    Regardless of where the future takes San Diego, it will only lead down the road to increasing air travel isolation unless we start building a new airport today. Remember that the window for operating efficiently out of Lindbergh Field, such as it is, is the same window required to get a new airport up and running. As the aviation pioneer for whom the current airport was named would surely agree, we need to look far ahead.

    Someday soon, I hope, those observing Earth from space will see more jet contrails pointing to and going from San Diego, meaning we will be better connected.

---Walter M. (Wally) Schirra, Captain, U.S. Navy, Ret., was one of NASA?s original seven astronauts, and the only astronaut to fly on Mercury, Gemini and Apollo missions. He was a jet fighter pilot during the Korean War and has been involved in several airlines and aviation-related companies since leaving NASA.

Last Updated: April 12, 2005

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