LAX AND ONTARIO INTERNATIONAL POST HIGHER PASSENGER VOLUMES IN 2004; LAX'S GROWTH RATE HIGHEST SINCE 1978; ONT SETS PASSENGER RECORD

(Los Angeles, California – January 27, 2005) Airport officials today announced that in 2004 Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) posted its highest rate of increase in passengers since 1978 and Ontario International Airport (ONT) served a record number of travelers. Los Angeles World Airports (LAWA), the City of Los Angeles department that owns and operates LAX, ONT and two other Southern California airports, released year-end statistics showing LAX served 60,688,609 passengers in 2004, strongly rebounding by 10.4 percent from the previous year's total of 54,982,838 passengers. The growth rate at LAX in 2004 was the largest year-over-year increase since 1978, when airline industry deregulation began and reversed three consecutive years of lower volumes.

Domestic passenger traffic at LAX increased 9.6 percent to 44,220,019 last year from 40,358,935 in 2003. International traveler volume was up 12.6 percent from 14,623,903 in 2003 to 16,468,590 last year. Figures for the month of December continued a trend that began February 2004, where each month's passenger total was greater than the same month in 2003.

"We are very pleased to have had a record year at Ontario International in 2004," said Kim Day, LAWA executive director. "At LAX, it now appears that a full recovery of passenger volumes from the aftermath of September 11, 2001, is in sight. Both airports are entering 2005 with passenger traffic momentum. We are also pleased to have recently resumed passenger service at Palmdale Regional Airport."

At Ontario International Airport (ONT), passenger traffic increased 5.95 percent to 6,937,337 passengers from 6,547,877 in 2003. The previous record was 6,756,086 in 2000.

Total air cargo (mail and freight) processed at LAX during 2004 was 2,109,895 tons - 4.38 percent higher than 2003's 2,021,278 tons. The freight (commodities) portion of the total cargo volume was up 4.86 percent from 1,924,087 tons in 2003 to 2,017,541 tons last year. The airmail portion of the total cargo volume was down to 92,353 tons in 2004 from 97,191 tons in 2003.

At ONT, air cargo tonnage for 2004 totaled 605,132 tons, an increase of 5.81 percent over the same period last year.

Statistical tables are available on LAWA's Internet website at www.lawa.org under each airport's statistics section.