b'24 ONT RUNWAYSFor instance, relocating the batch plant between years onebut the city lacked the money necessary to fund such development.and two allowed concrete delivery trucks to avoid potential 20-Aviation leaders in nearby Los Angeles had deeper pockets, or 30-minute delays whenever trains passed along a railway thathowever, and were intrigued by the potential at ONT, where separates the airport from the original batch plant site. runway approaches were unobstructed and coastal fog was far The Inland Evolution Continues less frequent than at LAX. Trials, perseverance and growth are thematic elements of In 1967, a joint powers agreement between the cities of Los ONTs history.Angeles and Ontario placed ONT under a regional aviation system alongside LAX, VNY and Palmdale Regional Airport Located 35 miles east of downtown Los Angeles, Ontario, CA,(PMD) to the north. Full ownership of ONT was transferred to takes its name from the home province of three brothers who leftthe Los Angeles Department of Airportsnow known as Los Canada in 1882 to establish an agricultural colony at the baseAngeles World Airports, or LAWAin July 1985. of the San Bernardino Mountains. Air travel arrived in 1923 at Latimer Field, a landing strip built on railroad property. Six yearsA flurry of construction occurred at ONT following that later, the city of Ontario purchased 30 acres of whats now theagreement, highlighted by the 1998 debut of terminals 2 and 4. southwestern corner of ONT and opened Ontario MunicipalThese gave the airport 26 new aircraft gates at a cost of $270 Airport. The field was expanded to 500 acres in March 1941,million, or $532 million in todays dollars.later served as a wartime Army base and was eventually returnedEventually, the relationship between Ontario and LAWA to city ownership at the end of World War II.deteriorated over time. Following the Great Recession, passenger Ontario was already a thriving rail and highway nexus, and cityvolume at ONT dipped from 7.2 million in 2007 to as low as leaders envisioned aviation as an additional force for industrial4.2 million five years later; peak cargo volume also decreased growth in a region that residents had long before nicknamed theby more than 26%. Local leaders contended that LAWA was Inland Empire of California. neglecting ONT and blamed the agency for failing to sufficiently market it. Some claimed fee structures were set to drive more As Ontarios post-war population took off, so did commercialbusiness toward a growing LAX.air travel and investments from aviation businesses such as Lockheed Aircraft Services and General Electric. By the late 1960s,Calls to separate ONT from LAWA grew louder, and those improvements were needed for ONT to continue to meet local needs,advocating divorce applied public pressure through a Set ONTario Free media campaign fronted by longtime Los Angeles Dodgers baseball manager Tommy Lasorda. In 2012, the Los Angeles City Council directed LAWA representatives to negotiate with leaders from Ontario and San Bernardino County to determine the most effective and appropriate ownership for ONT going forward. When those negotiations failed, a lawsuit followed in 2013 as Ontario formally sought to sever the 1967 agreement and recoup up to $4 billion in economic damages. A pre-trial settlement was reached two years later, and ownership of ONT officially transferred from LAWA to the newly formed Ontario International Airport Authority in November 2016.Under an FAA-approved agreement, ONT repaid approximately $60 million for outstanding bonds LAWA had issued on its behalf, plus up to $150 million in cash spread over several years. The funds were to offset LAWAs investments at ONT, including the terminals finished in 1998.As we continue our revitalization of LAX to make it a world-class airport befitting our global city, we are equally committed to the excellence of Ontario in serving its own regional customer base, then L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti said at the time. September 2025AirportImprovement.com'