Ontario officials have hopes airport may one day live up to its name

Published 5/10/98

Some day, Dennis Watson hopes Ontario International Airport will live up to its name.

No planes take people to other countries, and only a few of the flights that originate each day at United Parcel Service’s Ontario hub have destinations on foreign soil.

Officials at the airport are working to change that, Watson said. As the director of public affairs, he is charged not only with acting as the airport’s primary spokesman but marketing it as a place to ship cargo.

Watson said he hopes to make Ontario an attractive place for shippers to transfer their goods. He also wants to make it an international port of entry.

Space is available for expansion at the airport: Lockheed has vacated its 70-acre location, the airport’s new terminal building will open soon, and there’s a vacant Air National Guard hangar. Additionally, hangars on the south side used by the Postal Service during the Christmas rush are available, while the Los Angeles Police Department will no longer use its special driving lot for training officers.

“This is a very opportune time for this because we’re the only airport in Southern California with the room and the ability to grow,” Watson said.

Los Angeles World Airports, the entity that has owned and operated the airport since 1967, is considering numerous uses for the available space.

Watson said the short list includes cargo uses, a customs examination center and aviation-related office space.

It’s an impressive outlook for what once was a simple dirt landing area.

“It was the military that turned it from a dirt strip into a modern airport at the time,” Watson said. “The California Air National Guard turned it into a modern airport.”

Now, each runway exceeds 12,000 feet and can accommodate any aircraft.

During World War II, the federal government built the airport as a school for combat pilots. In 1946, the field was declared war surplus and turned over to the city as a municipal airport.

Ontario named George S. Sanford the manager. The field later was named Ontario International Airport. The name was submitted by Mrs. F.R. Hime of North Vine Avenue in a contest.

“The city fathers and mothers saw early the value of having an airport,” Watson said. “They said if we get this airport and we can get service here, this whole area will grow.”

In March 1946, Industrial Air Transport was awarded a contract to carry mail and freight to Siam ­ now Thailand ­ and Guam.

Among the cargo the carrier ­ later renamed Pacific Overseas Airlines ­ brought to Ontario were circus animals from Siam, India and Malaya.

Overseas freight through the airport has changed over the years ­ it’s now made up mostly of computers, software, textiles, packages and produce, including every Dole pineapple sold in the continental United States.

In 1981, the airport secured its place among the top echelon of shipping locations when UPS chose it as a shipping hub.

UPS, which makes up nearly three-fourths of the airport’s cargo capacity, ships packages and cargo throughout the Pacific Rim and the United States.

Last year, it moved 640,000 tons through Ontario.

“It’s one of our regional air hubs,” said Steve Chisum, spokesman for UPS. “We consider it the second-largest in our network.” The biggest hub is in Louisville, Ky.

The UPS hub is the only place in the Inland Empire where customs agents are permanently stationed to inspect cargo, he said.

“There’s a lot of facilities locating directly around the airport area,” Chisum said. “A lot of them are locating there just because UPS is there.”

Throughout its history, the airport has been the topic of much debate. To this day, more than 30 years after the transfer, tensions run deep over Ontario’s sale of the field to Los Angeles.

“If I had my way, the city of Los Angeles would have had nothing to do with this airport,” said former Mayor Bob Ellingwood.

“It’s an economic engine for the area, but only Ontario has to pay for it,” Ellingwood said. “We have to provide all of the services around the airport. It’s a burden on the Ontario taxpayers.”

Howard Snider, who was mayor in 1967 when the city agreed to turn the airport over to Los Angeles, holds fast to his belief the decision was the right one at the time.

In the 1960s, when airlines were regulated by the Civil Aeronautics Board, new air routes were hard to come by.

If an airline wanted a route, it had to endure a long, bureaucratic process to get flights approved.

The exception was if an airport was merged with another airport, then there could be flight transfers between the two without CAB approval.

So Ontario opened talks with Los Angeles, for which it was already an alternate landing site in foggy situations.

“A lot of people that weren’t involved in it now say, ‘Well, what did we sell it for?’ We didn’t sell it. We merged it, and we did it for the betterment of the Inland Empire,” Snider said.

“I defy anybody to tell me they had 20-20 foresight to know what was going to happen down the road.”

In 1986, during his second tenure as mayor, he went back to Los Angeles and offered them $19 million to buy back the airport.

Los Angeles officials declined the offer.