Traffic at Santa Monica Airport declining

The legal fight over Santa Monica Airport has obscured a trend: Fewer planes are flying out of the airport, according to Lookout News:

It didn’t take a legal battle between the city and Federal Aviation Administration to curb jet traffic at Santa Monica Airport. It took an economic nose dive. While the two sides continue wrangling over a year-old Santa Monica ordinance that restricts larger, faster jets at the airport, the number of jet operations has dropped dramatically from 18,575 in 2007 to 15,710 last year, a 15% decrease, according to the airport's annual noise report issued last month. Propeller aircraft operations also dropped, from 105,331 in 2007 to 104,124, or 1.1%, according to the report. Helicopter operations, however, rose from 3,130 in 2007 to 3,204, an increase of 2.3%.