For Penny Alderson, Whiteman Airport in Pacoima has been the lifeblood for three businesses she co-owns and operates that have been around for decades: an avionics installation firm, a flight school and a hangar-leasing company.

Together, these businesses employ more than 15 people and pull in tens of millions of dollars a year in revenue.

But in recent years, that lifeblood has come under increasing threat as pressure has steadily mounted to close the nearly 80-year-old Whiteman Airport, one of the last general aviation airfields to remain in the San Fernando Valley.

“If the airport were to close, it would be the end of the road for my businesses,” Alderson says.

Pacoima Beautiful, a neighborhood activist and environmental group, has been leading the charge to shut down the county-owned airport, citing pollution and noise concerns, as well as a string of plane crashes a few years back. The group’s drive has gained increasing support from local elected officials and others – to the point that this past spring the County Board of Supervisors voted to commission a report from county staff exploring non-airport options for the parcel.

What’s more, earlier this summer, County Supervisor Lindsey Horvath, whose district includes Whiteman Airport, announced that the county would no longer apply for – or accept – federal funds to maintain or upgrade the airport. Such funds usually come with strings attached, including a binding obligation to keep the airport open for 20 years.

As of now, no official action has been taken to close the airport, which sits on 184 acres of land in the Pacoima neighborhood. And even if such a decision is ultimately taken, closure would take years – perhaps more than a decade.

General aviation airports shutting down

Yet, Alderson and owners of more than two dozen other businesses that rely on the airport have reason to be concerned. They look around and see that since 2000, scores of general aviation airports have shut down across the nation, including at least eight in California, according to a 2017 report from the California Department of Transportation.

More recently, in response to similar pressures, Santa Monica, after reaching an agreement in 2017 with the Federal Aviation Administration, is proceeding with the closure of its municipal airport, now slated for December 2028.

“The level of concern about the airport closure is very high,” Alderson says.

Not only do other general aviation airport closures signal that Whiteman Airport could close, but they also put more pressure on the remaining airports, according to Jim Miller, a former administrator of Whiteman Airport who now heads a U.S. Air Force Civil Air Patrol cadet squadron that uses the airfield.

“Santa Monica (Airport) is closing in five years and some of those aircraft are going to come over to Whiteman,” Miller says. “They can’t even get into Van Nuys at the moment.”

With such a tight market for general aviation aircraft space, Miller wonders what will happen to the 600 aircraft that now tie down at Whiteman should the airport close.

“Even if you could get into an airport, the rents for tie-downs are almost certain to skyrocket,” Miller says.

Alderson says she has a similar concern about her businesses, especially the flight school and the avionics installation company, which is called Vista Aviation.

“Each airfield has one or two preferred vendors for installation of avionics equipment,” Alderson says. “And all the other airports around here already have their preferred vendors. So, the question becomes where would we move to?”

Alderson isn’t the only concerned business owner.

Art Cueva owns Able Air Corp., a general aviation aircraft maintenance company founded in 1975 that he says is the oldest business still at Whiteman.

Cueva says that if a decision is made to shut down Whiteman, he wants to know whether the county would help him try to relocate his business.

“Right now, there are no openings for additional aircraft maintenance companies at other general aviation airports in the area – at least as far as I’ve checked,” he says.

Nonprofits worried, too

Concern about the impact of the potential closure of Whiteman has also spread to the nonprofit sector, including Miller and his Civil Air Patrol squadron. The Civil Air Patrol’s services include search and rescue operations, education programs for the public on aviation issues and leadership skill development programs for teenagers.

“If the airport were to close, we would then have to start looking for another location to meet and use as a training center,” Miller says.

Just as with their commercial business counterparts, getting space at other airports would likely prove difficult, since most other general aviation airports have their own squadrons.

Miller says the other general aviation airports in the region – in Camarillo, Lancaster and in the San Gabriel Valley – are too far away to consider as new locations for the squadron, especially given commute times.

Trying to prevent the airport’s closure

Pacoima Beautiful, the group leading the effort to close Whiteman Airport, declined to comment on the impact that closing the airport would have on these businesses and nonprofits.

The group does have a web page dedicated to its campaign to shut down the airport. On that web page, the group notes that there have been three crashes involving planes flying into or out of Whiteman Airport since 2020 and that two of those crashes resulted in fatalities.

There’s also an environmental justice component to Pacoima Beautiful’s campaign as the group notes that the noise and pollution stemming from the airport primarily impacts the adjacent low-income and minority community.

Pacoima Beautiful has also held numerous neighborhood rallies to put pressure on local elected officials to shut down the airport.

On the pollution front, there may be some progress. Ever since the airport opened in 1946, aircraft have been using leaded fuel. But since June 1, unleaded fuel has been available at Whiteman, part of a broader effort for all five county-owned airports to switch to unleaded fuel.

Meanwhile, Alderson and the other businesses at Whiteman are trying to get the word out about the economic benefits of keeping Whiteman Airport open. And they have enlisted the help of advocacy organizations like the Valley Industry and Commerce Association.

VICA sought to gather support from the broader San Fernando Valley business community to show up at the county Board of Supervisors meeting in April when the motion to study alternate uses for the property was being considered.

“This will have a devastating financial fallout on existing property contracts, dire impacts on airport businesses, ripple effects on the broader airport system’s finances, and the unsettling appraisal of the land’s fair market value,” VICA said in its plea to the Valley’s business community to show support for the airport at the meeting.

Despite VICA’s efforts, the Board of Supervisors went ahead and approved the motion to study alternatives to airport use.

Once that study is in, the next move will be up to the supervisors.

While Alderson is concerned about the fate of her businesses, she also notes the larger stakes if Whiteman Airport were to join the list of general aviation airport closures.

“If all the general aviation airports close, there would be a tremendous impact on the infrastructure of the country,” she says. “General aviation training centers are the main pipeline for training of commercial air pilots and even future military pilots.”