Ontario International Airport’s official spokesperson took issue with a portion of the narrative in the Sentinel’s January 31 article that bore the headline “Ontario International Airport Ridership Back To Where It Was Eighteen Years Ago.”
That article reported on how, essentially, in 2024 Ontario International Airport achieved the significant milestone of surpassing 7 million passengers, the highest number since the City of Ontario regained ownership from Los Angeles in 2015. The 7,084,864 passengers who passed through the airport’s gates from January 1, 2024 until December 31, 2024 was slightly over 98.3 percent of the 7,207,150 passenger total the airport experienced in 2007. That figure, just shy of the 2007 ridership level at the airport which was the highest in the aerodrome’s history, represented a notable comeback for the airport. During the economic downturn known as the “Great Recession,” which began in 2007 and lingered for six years, ridership at Ontario International Airport dropped off significantly, as it did at virtually every other airport in the country. Passenger traffic into and out of Ontario declined to 6,232,975 in 2008, then dropped to 4,861,110 in 2009 and fell to 4,812,578 in 2010. Those numbers worsened to 4,540,694 in 2011, continued to decline to 4,296,459 in 2012 and hit rock bottom at 3,971,136 in 2013.
By 2010, Ontario officials, spearheaded by Councilman Alan Wapner, seized upon the downturn in usage at Ontario International Airport to openly allege that the City of Los Angeles, which since 1967 pursuant to a joint powers authority agreement with Ontario had been managing and operating the airport and which in 1985 had assumed ownership of it as a public benefit asset, was deliberately mismanaging the airport. In 2011, Wapner and the other officials instituted a formal effort to reclaim control of the airport from Los Angeles. That effort matured into a lawsuit filed in 2013 in which the law firm of Washington, D.C.-based law firm of Sheppard Mullin Richter & Hampton, sued Los Angeles and Los Angeles World Airports on Ontario’s behalf, claiming neglect and negligence, breach of contract and misfeasance in the operation and management of Ontario International Airport. In 2015, that lawsuit was settled, with Los Angeles agreeing to surrender ownership of the facility to Ontario as of November 1, 2016. In return, Ontario agreed to remunerate Los Angeles $60 million out of its various operating funds and another $30 million taken out of its reserves, make payments of $50 million over five years and $70 million in the final five years of the ten-year ownership transition and further absorbed $60 million of the airport’s bond debt to recompense purchasers of municipal bonds issued by Los Angeles, the proceeds of which had been used to make improvements at the airport.
Steve Lambert, who handles media and strategic communications for the airport, said comparisons of passenger traffic between Ontario International Airport (ONT) and Los Angeles International Airport (LAX)in the years that included the transition of ownership and thereafter contained mismatches that rendered the Sentinel narrative either inaccurate or misleading.
Lambert cited in particular this passage from the article: “Though Wapner, some of his council colleagues and those in their orbit sought to credit the jump in ridership at the airport to Ontario reasserting itself and seizing the aerodrome from Los Angeles, the reality was that the recovering economy had boosted air flight across the board. Indeed, a comparison to Los Angeles International Airport’s passenger numbers at the same time demonstrates that the Southern California region was a popular departure and destination venue, and that Los Angeles officials did a better job of capitalizing on that opportunity than did their counterparts in Ontario.
In 2015, the number of passengers at Los Angeles International Airport was 51.56 million. In 2016, the number of passengers at Los Angeles International Airport was 54.2 million. In 2017, the number of passengers at Los Angeles International Airport was 58.07 million. In 2018, the number of passengers at Los Angeles International Airport was 87,533,177. In 2019, the number of passengers at Los Angeles International Airport was 88,068,013.”
Lambert stated, “The numbers you are using for 2015-2017 for LAX are actually only their domestic passengers; your 2018-and-beyond numbers include both — creating a distorted comparison. In actuality, their total passenger counts (domestic and international) were 80.9 million in 2016 and 84.6 million in 2017. From 2016 through 2019, LAX grew at an 8.8% overall rate. ONT during that same period grew at a 31.3% clip.”
Lambert continued, “From 2016 through 2024, LAX passenger volumes have actually decreased by 5.3% (while ONT’s are up 66%). Since pre-pandemic 2019, LAX is down 13%, while ONT is up 26.8%.”