Sebar's Blog

It has been bandied about for many years now "Is Van Nuys airport going to take on the excess traffic of Burbank and LAX amongst others?" The question has haunted residents (wink) living near the airport for years, so I decided to look into the cold hard facts and here is what I found out.

Van Nuys has two main parallel runways that can accommodate large jets including the 747, yes you heard me right. It isn't that far fetched and extending the runway to Victory Blvd, while acing a golf course or beyond, would all but cement its future in that direction; much to the dismay of one very pretty Vanna White, whose own jets currently use the field.

Runway 16R/34L has a length as of this writing of 8,001 feet and the other runway 16L/34R has a length of 4,011 feet in length. Yeah I know what you folks are going to say, that a 747 cannot takeoff from 34L....WRONG! While a 747 requires 10,500 feet to take off, that is at full capacity. According to the ATSB, a 747-400 can take off from 8,400 feet with a 90% capacity and at only 80% capacity can take off from 6,600 feet putting it easily on the tarmac at runway 34L. In addition here are the remaining numbers of aircraft in usage today that could use 34L and a future expansion to both runways would open Van Nuys up to major air traffic which homeowners and local businesses dread equally.

Here are the ATSB specs on current aircraft in use at U.S. airports including LAX and Burbank amongst others.

MD-81 4,400, 5,700, 7,800 feet at full capacity
MD-11 7,800, 10,000, 11,800 feet at full capacity
737-700 4,600, 6,300, 10,300 feet at full capacity
737-300 4,700, 6,000, 10,600 feet at full capacity
747- 400 6,600, 8,400, 10,500 feet at full capacity
757-200 5,000, 6,500, 10,000 feet at full capacity
767-400 6,500, 8,300, 11,000 feet at full capacity
777-200 5,500, 7,600, 11,500 feet at full capacity
Airbus A320 4,300, 5,400, 6,600 feet at full capacity
Airbus A300 4,900, 6,400, 8,000 feet at full capacity

Now, with the proper figures above, you can see that almost all of the aircraft in some capacity and even others at full capacity can easily be accommodated by runway 34L; and if runway 34R were lengthened or even both runways lengthened, it changes the entire dynamics of the airport completely.

So the big question is not if it will happen but when it will happen and how it will change the central San Fernando Valley and either benefit or fail the L.A. passenger and cargo air routes locally? I know one thing, Rick will love those Mamas donuts as he fraternizes with local 747 pilots...cheers!

American Author, Poet, Songwriter and Filmwriter
"Mark Paul" Sebar
The Power To Write The Best!