Pendleton Airport Initiative

Let's work as partners to promote the building of a new international airport at the southern end of Camp Pendleton to serve Orange, San Diego, and San Bernardino counties. The arguments in favor of adding air travel capacity in Southern California have always been strong.  International trade brings Southern Californians unparalleled prosperity and peace.  Moreover, the main things we export these days are our ideas and our services – the people-to-people marketing of both require excellent airport facilities.  But, the gateway to our trade, LAX, is now beginning to resemble a bad Three Stooges routine – Moe, Larry, and Curley all trying to walk through the same door at the same time. 

Three recent events further favor a proposed Pendleton International Airport: (1) President Obama's designation of international trade as a key pathway out of the recession; (2) the immediate importance of job creation via infrastructure development; and most recently, (3) Secretary of Defense Gates' comments about the obsolescence of beach landings as a military tactic.

See immediately below our current correspondence on the matter with President Obama and the Department of the Navy. Also pertinent is a public debate carried in the pages of the Los Angeles Times and the Orange County Register circa 2000, including opinion pieces by two Marine generals.

Please let us know your ideas about building a new international airport at Camp Pendleton.

Additional information: 

Negotiating Over a Limited Resource: What Would You Do?

Current Correspondence with President Obama and the Department of the Navy

Debate on OPED pages with Marine generals

Defense Secretary Gates comments about the obsolescence of beach landings

During 2003-2006 the San Diego Regional Airport Authority conducted an intensive technical search of San Diego County for a new airport, and only found two workable sites – MCAS Miramar and Camp Pendleton. The voters of the County rejected Miramar in November 2006. Click here to see one post mortem of the failed initiative. Pendleton makes the most sense when San Diego and Orange counties collaborate, and particularly in the context of the future high-speed rail service between the two.