Experts argue over need for new airport

By Alison St John / Reporter, KPBS Public Broadcasting

Published March 19, 2006 at 9:00 PM PST

This story was published more than 18 years ago.

The San Diego Airport Authority listened to dueling experts today. They argued over whether San Diego really needs a new airport. KPBS reporter Alison St John has more.

Dr Richard Carson, of UCSD argues Lindbergh Field could handle growing air traffic if it encouraged airlines to use bigger planes. He says it could do that by selling time slots for planes to land and take off.

Carson: "If you price those slots appropriately, over time you'll get the same service or better service than we've got now."

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But Dr. Seth Young of Embry Riddle Aeronautical University says airlines find smaller planes and more frequent, non- stop flights are what people want. He says selling time slots at Lindbergh would restrict that.

Young: "But then you're forcing them into a model that we've proven to be economically inefficient so if you wanna have profitable efficient airline the economical thing to do it provide facilities to accommodate it."

Airport Authority members said selling time slots would only be a stop gap measure to postpone the inevitable day when Lindbergh reaches capacity. Alison St John, KPBS News.

Alison St John

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Alison St John currently serves as a general assignment reporter and occasionally co-hosts KPBS Midday Edition. She fell in love with KPBS Radio when she arrived in San Diego in 1985 and first heard NPR. She has been a voice on KPBS Radio since 1989, and has served as a news reporter for radio, TV and the web, as well as anchoring, hosting, producing and editing. Alison has reported on stories about North County and was based in the KPBS' North County Bureau. Alison covered the metro beat during the critical period of the San Diego City pension crisis, and the education beat while Alan Bersin was the controversial Superintendent of San Diego City School District. She covered health when the industry was converting to managed care and told welfare reform stories in the late 1990s when Clinton was “ending welfare as we know it.” She has covered land use issues extensively, looking at the challenges of meeting a growing population while preserving community character, and developing a better transportation system to meet environmental concerns. She has done many stories on the military in San Diego, and the series she edited on the challenges veterans face returning from active duty to civilian life won “Best of Show” from the San Diego Society of Professional Journalists. She occasionally hosts the KPBS Roundtable and KPBS Midday Edition. Alison has won awards from the San Diego Press Club, the Society of Professional Journalists, the Associated Press TV and Radio Association, and the California Golden Mike Awards. Alison was born in Tanzania, brought up in Scotland, and earned her degree in psychology and sociology from Durham University in England. Her postgraduate diploma is in student counseling. She worked in England, Nigeria, Switzerland, Belgium, India, and Japan before moving to the United States in 1981. She now lives in Oceanside and enjoys how her community is growing and changing.