Editorials

LOS ANGELES — Airports around the country are halting or revamping billions of dollars worth of expansion plans because of fewer fliers and greater security concerns after the Sept. 11 hijacker attacks. 

From Boston to San Francisco, airports are delaying building runways and terminals or are reconsidering planned additions as passengers remain jittery about flying and airlines keep planes grounded. 

At Phoenix’s Sky Harbor International Airport, work has stopped on most of the airport’s $1.2 billion expansion, including preliminary work on a $650 million terminal to replace two existing ones. 

“The demand is just not there as it was before Sept. 11,” airport spokeswoman Suzanne Luber said. 

Since last month’s terrorist attacks, passenger volume is down 20 to 30 percent. Airlines have cut their capacity by 20 percent, laid off more than 90,000 employees and warned of multibillion-dollar losses well into 2002. Congress last month approved a $15 billion relief package, including $5 billion in cash and $10 billion in loan guarantees for the companies. 

Even before the attacks, air traffic was flat and revenue per passenger down 10 percent, said aviation industry consultant Michael Boyd. 

He forecast that 230 million fewer passengers will fly in the next five years than would have otherwise because of the attacks, and that demand will not fully recover until 2005 or 2006. 

Airports that have curtailed or are reconsidering expansion plans since Sept. 11 include: 

• Los Angeles International Airport, which scaled back its expansion plans to emphasize security over capacity. A revised plan would increase the airport’s capacity to 78 million passengers per year by 2015, instead of the 89 million previously envisioned. 

• San Francisco International Airport, which has halted plans to renovate a domestic terminal and build a new airport hotel but remains determined to change its status as the nation’s most delay-plagued airport by expanding its runways. Officials assume passenger traffic will return to pre-attack levels by the time the runway project is ready for construction. 

• Logan International Airport in Boston, where two of the airplanes hijacked on Sept. 11 originated, where officials will meet this week to decide whether to proceed with the final phases of a 10-year, $4 billion renovation, including the addition of a new runway. 

Airports and airlines also face the costs of increased security. Los Angeles Mayor James Hahn has suggested adding a building east of the airport itself to screen passengers and luggage. Passengers would use public transportation to proceed to gates. 

In Phoenix, officials had been considering fingerprint or eye scan systems to screen airport and airline employees who have access to secure areas. They say they now are looking at it more seriously. Halting expansion plans may mean having to look for new, harder-to-find financing later. And some airports, seeing a need for expansion even with the drop in traffic, are pushing ahead. 

“We’re still extremely optimistic about the future,” said Ken Capps, spokesman for Texas’ Dallas-Fort Worth airport, which broke ground Sunday on a $2.6 billion expansion that includes a new international terminal and an automated people-mover system. 

“We think it’s a little bit like the stock market. It’s up and down and a little bit uncertain right now, but in the long term, we’re bullish,” he said. 

Two weeks after the terrorist attacks, officials in Michigan’s Wayne County voted to issue $900 million in bonds to add 25 gates to Northwest Airlines’ new terminal and renovate two existing terminals at Detroit Metropolitan Airport. 

At Atlanta’s airport, the nation’s busiest, officials are still planning to build a $1.3 billion fifth runway despite renewed criticism over the cost and concerns about declining air traffic. 

And in St. Louis, the first phase of a $1.4 billion expansion plan, including construction of a 9,000-foot runway, will continue even though the airport has lost about $112,000 a day in passenger fees, parking receipts and concession income since Sept. 11. 

“All the money is in place and all the reasons that existed for the expansion still exist, and it’s important for us to continue forward,” said Michael Donatt, a spokesman for Lambert-St. Louis International Airport. 

Opponents of the Lambert expansion are urging a second look. 

“The reductions we are seeing in the number of passengers is not a short-term event,” Airport Commissioner John Krekeler said. “It’s not something that’s just a blip on the screen. I think it’s going to have a long-term effect.”