Eyes on the Sky, Feet on the Ground

Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) is the world’s fifth largest airport in terms of passenger traffic, and it’s up to CSULB alumnus Jens O. Rivera to keep it smoothly flying.

As director of airport operations, Rivera oversees an organization that served more than 61 million passengers in 2005 while balancing the needs of a host of complementary and often competing government and private interests.

LAX is one of four airports that are part of a Los Angeles city agency called Los Angeles World Airports (LAWA) that also operates Ontario, Van Nuys and Palmdale airports. “It’s an independent department of the city and it is the closest to a business that the city runs,” Rivera explained. “It’s really a place where there are hundreds of businesses acting independently, and what we are is a huge landlord. We simply try to coordinate all these businesses here and maintain the facility so that our tenants can operate effectively and have a successful business.”

Instead of city taxpayers, “the airport is totally user supported and that’s through a variety of sources including landing fees, concession revenues, passenger facility charges, leases and rentals. It also receives airport improvement grants and discretionary grants funded by the Federal Aviation Administration through ticket taxes.”

Rivera earned his B.A. in anthropology in 1976 and his master of public administration in 1982. After working for several Los Angeles city agencies including a youth employment program, Harbor Department and Convention Center, he thought about which agencies could prepare him for future career opportunities.

Airports were among them, so he started at LAX in 1985, eventually becoming an assistant to the deputy of administration and operations. He later transferred to Ontario, then became manager of Van Nuys before being called back to manage Ontario.

Rivera was named head of LAX operations in April 2005. When LAWA reorganized this February, it upgraded his position from manager to director, which also added new customer-focused responsibilities.

Managing LAX’s growth is a major challenge. “We just settled several development issues associated with the master plan issues here at the airport with a community benefits agreement,” he said. “We’ve got a mayor who is moving forward, so we’ve got the green light for several projects, including a major reconstruction of our longest runway on the south,” as well as adding a new center taxiway to improve safety.

“This airport is going through a huge construction phase now, not only on the outside, but within the terminals,” he continued. “We’re going to really start focusing on customer service and improving our facilities. We really haven’t had any redevelopment out here since the 1984 Olympics.”

Another big challenge—literally—is accommodating the new Airbus A380 jet. The 550-passenger, double-decked behemoth has a total wingspan 50 feet longer than that of a Boeing 747, so several gates are being refurbished. The plane’s sheer size also will require adjustments to ground traffic control processes.

But airports really are all about people. “You have to have an ability to deal with a diverse group of people,” Rivera said. “I think my educational background certainly helped, in that I majored in anthropology, which exposed me to a lot of different cultures,” as did his M.P.A. degree. “It’s a matter of finding the right compromise for all these groups of people. Everybody will realize that this is a business. It makes noise, it’s going to affect the community, but it certainly provides a huge amount of jobs and economic output for the whole Southern California region.”

To learn more about LAX, visit www.lawa.org.

— Anne Ambrose