Interested in running an airport?

If so, you have until Feb. 28 to respond to a request by Los Angeles World Airports seeking expressions of interest in operating Ontario International Airport.

The agency, which owns and operates the San Bernardino County facility as well as Los Angeles International Airport, put the request out earlier this month.

“It’s a bid for expressions of interest only,” said LAWA spokeswoman Nancy Castles. “If there is viable interest out there, the information we gather will help us put together a formal request for proposals.”

The request follows the Los Angeles City Council’s September release of a feasibility study suggesting that outside operators be sought to manage the airport.

The Ontario airport – a transportation hub in the Inland Empire that many have long regarded as LAWA’s poor stepchild – has been losing passengers and revenue for years.

The council ordered the study last year after a group spearheaded by Alan Wapner, a councilman in Ontario about 50 miles east of downtown Los Angeles, demanded return of the airport to local control.

Speaking of Flying

Air China has announced it will add a second daily flight between Los Angeles and Beijing beginning Sept. 1. Using a Boeing 747-400 aircraft, the flights will arrive in Los Angeles at 11 a.m. and depart for Beijing at 1.20 p.m.

Nearby Long Beach Airport, meanwhile, has inaugurated four nonstop weekly flights to Las Vegas on Allegiant, an airline based in that Nevada city. The flights will occur at various times Mondays, Thursdays, Fridays and Sundays. The airline recently announced it was discontinuing service from Long Beach to Stockton.

The Long Beach facility also has finally broken ground on a $45 million passenger concourse, including a 34,750-square-foot boarding lounge, scheduled to open next year. The city sold $62 million in 30-year bonds in November to pay for the project, which will connect the airport’s 11 gates to its main terminal, providing waiting rooms decorated with interior gardens and palm trees.

The rest of the money will be used to refinance old debts.

Other Improvements

The Los Angeles Board of Airport Commissioners has awarded a contract to AZ Home Inc. of Van Nuys to provide sound proofing on 69 homes near LAX. The $1 million contract is part of the LAX Residential Soundproofing Program aimed at insulating 9,400 homes in South Los Angeles, Westchester and Playa del Rey where decibel levels reach 65 or more.

Staff reporter David Haldane can be reached at [email protected] or at 323-549-5225, ext. 225.