(dramatic instrumental music) - My guest is Alan Wapner.

He is the president of the Ontario International Airport Authority.

Thank you so much for joining us.

- Thank you for having me.

- All right.

So let's get caught up.

Share what's going on, any kind of updates you can on the Ontario Airport.

Where are we now?

- Things are going really well.

We're at the same levels we were pre-pandemic which is just incredible.

We got there this quick.

And as a result with the amount of passengers we're seeing a large amount of new airlines new flights coming through concessions reopening, some new concessions coming through.

So really excited.

Everything's going really well for us.

- Well, that's good.

I'm glad to hear that.

What's going on between you and the airlines overall.

How are the, how are we faring as far as the airlines and working with them?

- We've always had a great relationship with our airlines.

And, like I said they're real happy that we've increased our passenger count.

As a result, they are adding more flights and we've also been able to attract some new airlines as well.

- You've also been able to attract new airlines?

- Attract new airlines.

Yeah.

We have some new airlines in.

We picked up Avianca, which is flying internationally down to Central and South America.

We have Volaris has added flights down to Mexico.

Frontier has added flights to Central America.

So we have international airlines going.

Of course the big one is Hawaiian Airlines.

It has been under big demand for quite a while.

So they're flying daily, non-stop to Honolulu and they're looking at adding additional destinations in Hawaii as well.

Those flights are going extremely well.

- Okay.

Well, since you brought up Hawaii.

I did want to ask you about that because it is one of the locations that when you travel there there are some COVID stipulations.

Can you share any of that since you brought up the flight to Hawaii?

- Sure.

And actually I think they lifted most of those as long as you're vaccinated.

For a while Kauai, which is another island.

You'd have to take an inter-island airline.

They weren't allowing anybody in but from my understanding now you still have to get tested but we actually have instantaneous testing facilities on-site now that have been contracted with Hawaiian airlines.

So you don't have to worry about that.

You can get it done right on site.

And, from my understanding it's pretty much open when you get to Hawaii.

- Wow.

Very good.

What restrictions are in place that travelers should be aware of?

Meaning mask requirements or other COVID efforts that are in place at the Ontario Airport?

- Sure.

Because we're considered a federal facility we're still under the mandate of the CDC which requires a mask in any public transportation system whether that be rail, on transit, or in airports.

So you're required to have a mask on anytime you're within the airport.

And they're also required in boarding as well as on the airline for the entire flight.

- And is that working out okay?

Are people cooperating?

What does it look like inside?

- Actually, we really got a really high rate of compliance within Ontario Airport.

There's been other airports that have had a lot of problems with it.

They've made arrests and issued citations.

Ontario, no problem at all.

People are obviously uncomfortable.

They don't really want to do it but they understand it's a mandate and they got to do it.

- And are people traveling for business or are they traveling for leisure?

- A little of both, certainly business is picking up quicker than the leisure travel.

There's still some folks that are a bit scared for the leisure, and we're seeing a little bit of a drop now with the resurgence with the Delta variant.

But, primarily it's really both are increasing.

But, business more than leisure right now.

- Hmm.

I'm surprised that business is increasing because I often hear that, through the pandemic and how people were conducting businesses people weren't going to conferences and traveling to conduct business.

They were doing it online for the most part.

And that business was slow and businesses were starting to see that they could get as much done without the travel and save some money but you're seeing that the business is coming up?

- Absolutely, business is picking up for the business traveler and it's certainly seen in the hospitality industry as well.

Our hotels at near capacity right now which happened pretty quickly.

We're booking conventions at the convention center concerts at the arenas.

So really hospitality and that type of industry has really opened up quite a bit.

- All right.

Well, I want to talk about some of the other services at the airport.

So if you can share a little bit about the parking options the restaurants, the shops and how are things there in that aspect?

- Sure.

The parking lot, you know, they're wide open.

I don't think we've implemented valet parking back again but that should be happening real soon as well as our pre-booking your parking online.

As far as in the terminal itself.

I guess the big news is Dunkin Donuts.

That is just an incredibly big hit.

We have them in Terminal four.

They're looking to expand near Terminal two.

The lines are all the way down the terminal.

People have this pent up demand for coffee and donuts.

And we're really excited about that.

Chick-fil-A is going to be coming in soon.

They've already had their space leased and they're going to be coming in soon.

Just about all the, I think all the other outlets that are closed during the pandemic are reopened.

Limited hours and the reason for that Lillian it's just like everyone else are having trouble getting staffing but they're prepared and the passenger demand is there for them to reopen.

So it's operations as usual for the airport.

A lot of new sponsorships.

We have folks that come in Porsche Audi.

Ontario Porsche Audi is one of our major sponsors.

They actually have cars parked inside the baggage claim areas of both terminals.

So they're a great sponsor of ours now.

And we have some other good sponsors that are coming on board.

- Wow.

I guess I didn't think about sponsors when it comes to the airport but I could see how it would play a part.

So is that one of your jobs too to do the sales part on that?

- Personally, no, but I got a great staff that does that.

You know the success of any airport is really due to what's called non-aviation revenue.

That's, you know, parking revenue, concession revenue advertising revenue that all goes to offset airline cost.

And as a result, pretty much the way I look at it is any space within the airport is sellable space.

And you're going to see a lot more LED advertising different kinds of advertising, different kinds of sponsors but really we want to take advantage of that provide a service for our passengers as well so they can see what kinds of services are available in the area as well as a revenue generator for the airport.

- So when you talk about space and you talk about advertising, my go-to is Outreach.

What's available for nonprofits or other organizations in our community for Outreach?

- Well, sure.

You know, one thing is obviously is we have the art exhibits which are in the airport and we open that up to the community art museum the Chaffey Community Art Museum to actually put the things in there.

Certainly we have opportunities for the community to come out and have tours of the airport.

We always take schools on tours.

If you know, the schools are back in session due to the pandemic, they can certainly take tours out there.

We want to get the public more involved.

There was one project that we started before the pandemic is that was a viewing area.

We know a lot of folks like to bring the kids out to watch the airplanes land and take off.

So we were going to build a viewing area just on the east side of the terminal.

So I think now that ridership is up again we'll probably go ahead and we'll complete that project as well.

So a lot of opportunities for folks to take advantage and the airport is available to sponsor community services in the community.

And we also make our LED boards inside the airport and outside available for public service announcements.

- And where is your LED?

Where would one see that or a passenger see that?

- Well, we have LEDs throughout both terminals now.

And we also have the LED billboards throughout the parking lot areas in the surrounding streets.

- The artwork that you talked about is that currently only available to the Chaffey organization or because let's face it, the Ontario Airport serves many communities from the Inland Empire region.

So how do we get other art organizations involved there?

- Well, they could certainly go through we wanted to have one centralized place to go to and that would be the Chaffey Community Art Museum but certainly our own museum, our police museum are all contributing things.

So I would say, you know, we're open especially for local artists especially for kids, teenagers that might want to display.

So I would suggest that they go through the Chaffey Community Art Museum and they can help them get their works into the airport.

- Cool.

The other thing you mentioned is, you know when after 9/11, we had to change the way TSA worked as far as boarding and you know, a plane.

And so we couldn't see our loved ones to that very end.

And we couldn't see the planes taking off.

Now, what I heard you just describe is something that's maybe going to take the place of that where people can see planes take off again?

- Well, you know, since 9/11 no one's been able to get into the boarding area except those that have tickets and boarding passes.

- Right.

- So unfortunately that's the best we could do.

We're a pre-9/11 airport.

So yeah, they can, it's not really take the place.

There's nothing like, you know, seeing your loved ones off or coming in, but certainly you can still do that at the bottom of the escalator or the stairs when they come in.

We always have a lot of folks waiting for their family members and friends to come in.

- Right.

Okay.

So I want to talk to talk about other transportation opportunities and businesses that are operating to serve the travelers in Ontario.

Who can pick up and transport?

Yes, because I know some companies were there.

Some companies may have gone.

So bring me up to date on that.

- Sure.

Well, we have Lyft operating there now.

Uber was there and they chose to leave once the fees were increased for them to do business there and we're in negotiations with them now for them to come back and we certainly have our taxi system as well, but really what we're trying to do in addition to that is get people into transit whether that be rail or bus.

And we're really excited about some new things that came forward when it comes to transit to the airport.

I would love to get into that at this point if it's okay with you a Lillian?

- Absolutely.

- So there's a few different things going on.

One is called the West Valley Connector.

That's a bus rapid transit system which means that it's like between a regular bus system and a rail.

There are some special buses in their own dedicated lanes that run faster headways.

And this is an interesting system because it begins at the Metrolink station in Pomona continues down Holt, goes through the airport the arena, the convention center then up until the Rancho Cucamonga to their Metrolink station and across to Victoria Gardens.

So really excited about that.

And that's just about finishing the planning stage.

When it comes to rail, you know right now what we've offered is we've offered free Lyft rides from the Metro link station in Rancho to the airport.

But because of the success of that we're now expanding that.

We're actually excited that working with the San Bernardino County Transportation Authority we're developing a direct link between the Rancho Cucamonga Metrolink station and the terminals at the airport.

This is going to be created via a tunnel.

Basically Elon Musk has his boring company and they've agreed to work with us.

And they're going to build a tunnel that will have vehicles moving folks directly between the Metrolink station in Rancho Cucamonga and the terminals.

And we're really excited about that.

That's moving forward.

It's an environmental stages right now but that that's just going to be incredible.

It really makes it fun.

Is that Brightline, which is building high speed rail to Las Vegas has changed their terminus from Victorville and Palmdale to Rancho Cucamonga Metrolink.

So now you're going to have the convergence of high-speed rail coming from Las Vegas directly to Rancho Cucamonga Metrolink and then folks can get on their vehicle and pretty much fly underground to the airport.

It's a very short ride in that type of technology.

- So when you say they're in the planning stages they're still probably won't see them for another 10 years in the planning stages before they, you know, come to fruition or where are we in that planning stage?

And when you look at a timeline.

- And you know, I hate to go to a timeline because people hold me to it.

- I won't hold you to it, I'm talking approximate.

- Much quicker that 10 years.

I'd say the West Valley Connector within the next two years.

And certainly the loop as we call it the underground tunnel should be within three years.

They move pretty quickly once they clear environmental.

- And do we know that this is what the public wants?

I know you're a travel you're a transportation guru.

And that's what you love, that's your passion.

Always looking to the future.

But do we know if this community is ready for this?

Ready to take it on and use it in that capacity because let's face it, compared to East Coast and maybe Midwest, our transportation systems are not we drive everywhere, right?

East coast, they're using transportation systems.

We're not as accustomed to that here in Southern California.

So is the public ready for this?

Do you foresee that they're ready or share your thoughts on that?

- Sure.

Our commitment to the community when we took back the airport is we were going to continue growing the airport for the local economy and convenience of our residents but not if it impacts the community.

Which, whether it's congestion, environmental impacts and it's really something that we need to do.

We've got to get people to the airport in ways other than single passenger vehicles.

If you look at Los Angeles, which is the worst example of how an airport is run, it's horrible.

And I don't want my community to go through that.

So I think the community should be excited and welcome these types of transit to get folks to the airport so that they can avoid having the single passenger vehicles coming through.

- Okay.

Have you heard from or talked to the community and done focus groups, focus studies and heard opinions of how because for me, it would not be on my brain to do it that way, right?

It's going to be, have my husband take me to the airport, drop me off as been the custom for, you know, 40 years for me.

So why do you think this will work?

I understand why you want it to work.

And I understand the importance that it could be but how do you think it'll work?

- So we're really talking about two different sets of people.

I was really talking about the folks that live in our community.

Those are the ones that we have to make sure they're okay with what's going on.

- Oh, okay.

- I think you're talking about the folks coming in to the airport from other areas and where they take transit.

I think that they'll take transit.

Certainly what we've found through studies for many, many years is that as long as we keep it convenient we keep it predictable.

People will take transit if they have that opportunity.

So I think people are excited about riding underground and the new technology as far as these vehicles coming from the Metrolink station in Rancho.

I think they'll look forward to something like that.

We're seeing an increase well, now there's a decrease in transit use because of the pandemic.

You know, pretty much transit uses down everywhere.

But when it's at its peak, people would rather take transit.

if they're going to an airport.

Now, if you going to your place of employment you may need to be more flexible.

You may need to have your car there.

- Right.

- But when you're going someplace like the airport where you know you're going to be gone for a day five days, whatever it is.

To avoid the parking problems and the cost of parking I think people would love to get on transit to get to the airport.

I can tell you personally, anecdotally I usually don't use transit around here because I need flexibility.

But when I travel, I always use transit.

Always take the train from the airport to my hotel.

I always use transit.

So I think that for the traveling public they're going to look forward to doing this.

- Okay, and you're right, we were talking about two different populations and I was thinking like the consumer is going to want to me for example, if I'm going to go to Ontario from my home in Yucaipa or Colton am I going to take a train to get there?

And what I hear you're saying is you think people are going to do that.

- I certainly do.

And you know and again, talking to folks and use of transit.

That's something they would prefer to take as long as it, you know, it's predictable it's economical, it's efficient.

And they can depend on getting in, you know, nobody wants to take transit if you're not sure if you're going to miss your bus and miss your flight.

- Right.

- So we have to make sure that when we present it we present it in such a way that it does serve the public properly.

- Okay.

Now, was there other things that you wanted to share that were new on the agenda that you're excited about?

Because I know I kind of stopped you because I wanted to dive a little deeper into that but were there other things on your checklist that you wanted to share?

- Well, yeah, I think, you know obviously passenger traffic is up.

I want to talk about cargo for just a minute.

During the pandemic, our cargo traffic increased tremendously, probably because of the increase in e-commerce and also the implementation of FedEx at our airport.

So they're really pushing a lot of air cargo.

That helped balance us during the pandemic that helped keep us above water because we had that extra revenue coming in from cargo.

So cargo is still continues to be strong.

We're still continuing to see increase in logistics centers being built around the airport.

And we're doing a lot of development around the airport involving logistics and other types of aviation use.

A large part of the business plan that we had implemented was to use some of the land the airport had about 800 acres on and around the airport that was never developed by Los Angeles.

So we're in the midst of developing all that land that will generate revenue to go right back into the airport.

- And as you decide to generate new revenue or develop that land, what is that land going to look like?

Is it going to be commercial?

Is it going to be, what's it going to be?

- It's going to be a mixture.

Some of the land off airport, right now the industrial market is higher than it's ever been.

So it's probably going to go more logistics and industrial.

On airport is going to be aviation related whether it be hanger space, new cargo carriers whatever it may be.

Certainly the airport owned some property just north of the airport that we want to develop into commercial hotel and retail.

So it's going to be a mixture depending on the exact location where the land is available.

- When started this conversation, we talked about you talked about some of the shops and the restaurants and they're opening, but not full hours.

And the conversation is kind of about jobs.

There are jobs out there but not the employees to fill them.

How are you guys attacking that situation?

- Pretty much using the same approach as everybody.

The airport itself has not had a problem recruiting.

We really don't have very many employees onsite but it certainly the concessionaires are having problems with the restaurants and the retail.

And it's really up to them how they're going to recruit their employees.

You know, you can try McDonald's and it's like, they're paying $500 signing bonus to go work at McDonald's.

At the city, I know we're having a lot of times attracting and recruiting employees.

So I don't know what they're going to do.

I certainly, I think they're offering all kinds of incentives to bring folks in to work at the airport.

I know the folks that are there are working overtime to try to fill in the hours.

But it's certainly to everybody's advantage for the concessionaires to remain open longer.

It helps the passengers and it helps them make money as well.

- All right.

In our last couple of minutes together I want to, I know you sit on, you're very involved in transportation for this community, overall.

I want to talk about the Metrolink.

How are they doing?

And are people riding the train again?

- Better than there were during the midst of the pandemic but not nearly where we were prior to the pandemic.

I think we're probably running about 60, maybe 70% of where we were pre-pandemic.

Our buses are about 50%, so everything's pretty much down but remember they were down as low as 20%, 10% 5% during the pandemic.

So certainly they're doing better than they were before.

We're going to start increasing the amount of service in San Bernardino County.

We're bringing in our own rail system in San Bernardino County is called Redlands Rail.

It's going to go from San Bernardino to the University of Redlands using what's called DMUs which are diesel multiple units.

And we've also been able to bring technology for zero multiple units which would be powered by hydrogen cell.

So you're seeing a lot of expansion on the Metrolink system.

You're going to have more often trains.

We cut them back during the pandemic but they're going to be running more often.

So there's a lot going on, transportation wise.

In fact, I got to tell you this, Lillian.

I just had staff put together a report.

Right now we have about $1.2 billion worth of transportation projects in Ontario alone.

- Wow.

- Just incredible.

30,000 jobs.

So you see construction the 10 express lanes.

The 60 reconstruction, the West Valley Connector, the loop.

All around us we have a lot of transportation projects going.

- I want to back up just a bit.

You said the Redlands Rail.

Where is that coming from and going to?

- It's going from, it's actually starting in downtown San Bernardino where we have a train station and bus station.

That's going to go into Redlands and terminating at the Redland University, Redlands campus.

So it'd be gone through Loma Linda and Loma Linda University.

And we see that there's a lot of ridership in the Redlands area that now they'll be able to connect with the Metrolink.

We're actually going to have Metrolink trains going to the university as well.

They'll be able to get-- - Because Redlands doesn't have their own Metrolink.

San Bernardino ends about it starts, I guess at San Bernardino and goes from there.

So Redlands doesn't have that.

This is allowing them to get to San Bernardino and then go from there?

- Exactly.

- Okay.

Very good.

So what is your greatest takeaway?

What is it, you want the community to know about the Ontario Airport, either where we are now and how we're moving forward?

- Yeah, thank you.

One, is that we're open for business and we're open for business in a little different way.

We're keeping a lot of the things that we implemented during the pandemic when it comes to hygiene, sanitation safe environment, you know, little things like we sterilize the escalator rails.

They're constantly under some kind of ultraviolet ray and that'll continue to be.

The filtration system that we have in the air conditioners will continue.

We'll continue offering masks and those kinds of things to passengers.

So we're open for business, not business as usual.

It's a new business as usual as we all know, there's a new normal out there.

And we have a lot of amenities to offer our passengers.

A great passenger experience.

And really this is our community's airport.

It's our region's airport.

It isn't Ontario's, it isn't San Bernardino County.

It's all of Southern California and we want to make sure that people are proud of the airport that they've helped evolve and they use this airport.

- Okay.

And lastly, just because it's something that's always on people's minds.

How much time should we, one allow now that we're traveling again, things are open.

What is the suggested amount of time we should allow to board, to get there in time to make our flights?

- Ontario is very convenient.

You can plan a minute to two minutes between the parking lot to, no.

(laughs) You know, it really depends on time of day, Lillian.

In the morning, there's a lot of folks waiting for TSA.

We've opened up some new lanes, so it takes a little longer.

And I think the standard rule is like an hour for domestic flights and two hours for international flights.

- And we can still use that as a generality.

- Pretty much.

There is some software on the computer now that you can do on the internet.

They actually gives you real-time wait times for TSA.

So I would say, go look at that as well.

- All right, very good.

Alan Wapner is the president of the Ontario International Airport Authority.

Thank you so much for the update on our beautiful airport.

- Thank you so much, Lillian.

- [Narrator] This program was originally produced for 91.9 KVCR Radio.

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