By Robert L. Candiotti

Singapore Airlines, the international airline that is leading with Airbus A380 operations, will begin flying between Singapore and Hong Kong with the A380 on July 11.

The carrier now has eight A380s in its fleet. Eleven more are on firm order, and there are options for six additional.

Hong Kong will be Singapore Airlines' fifth A380 destination.

SIA already is flying to Sydney, London, Tokyo and Paris with the superjumbo, double-deck A380 airplanes that require special airport facilities.

The A380 is becoming more and more an important commercial aviation type. As time goes on, its markets will spread.

The A380 will only be able to fly to Las Vegas if Ivanpah Valley Airport is eventually approved and built.

By Robert L. Candiotti

In the heart of one of the world's largest repositories of oil and gas - Abu Dhabi, of the United Arab Emirates - the government-owned Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company is investing US$15 billion for research and development of future energy technologies.

Included in the plans for dramatic sustainable energy advancements is a population center of 90,000 people who will reside in, and commute to, a futuristic city of zero-carbon and zero-waste sustainable existence.

Masdar City is projected to be completed in about a decade. Groundbreaking has already taken place. Many noteworthy partners, such as Massachusetts Institute of Technology and General Electric, have already signed on to the project.

The bulk of the energy for Masdar City reportedly will come from solar power.

Because I have a vision of the proposed Ivanpah Valley Airport - a new international airport 30 miles south of Las Vegas - being, among other things, a transformational "green airport," and adjacent Primm, Nevada, becoming a Nevada-California border town imaginatively made over for the 21st Century, it appears Abu Dhabi's financial and technological commitments to sustainable energy development puts my Southern Nevada vision at least on the plane of reasonable possibility. 

By Robert L. Candiotti

News of the June 3, 2009, death of 81 year-old Sam Butera - the cool, colorful and talented saxophone player famous for making Las Vegas lounge music with Louis Prima for decades - motivated me to listen to my Capitol Records "Louis Prima Collectors Series" CD.

I had not listened to it very much for at least a few years.

The very instant the first song - "Just A Gigolo" - began, I was sucked right into the fun and foot-tapping rhythm that causes the listener to forget all worries and be lifted up by a charming, child-like enthusiasm for life and laughs.

The delightful songs go on and on. They are exhilarating, elevating and thoroughly entertaining.

"Oh Marie," "Jump, Jive an' Wail," "Banana Split for My Baby," "5 Months, 2 Weeks, 2 Days," "There'll Be No Next Time," "Pennies From Heaven," "Sing, Sing, Sing." This music, performed late at night in throbbing Las Vegas lounges by Prima and Butera, can actually be transcendental.

The sax solos are so hot. Did these people rock, or what?

There are more than two dozen songs on the CD, and they are mostly all superb.

The performances are enchanting, and the musicianship level is high.

It is so much fun.

Though the Prima/Butera sound has its roots in Las Vegas in the 1950s, I can see how it is applicable to Southern Nevada's Ivanpah Valley Airport which is being considered for the future.

It is the spirit of that music that I see being appropriate for tomorrow's Primm, Nevada, and the adjacent Ivanpah Valley Airport.

If Ivanpah can somehow approximate the feeling of Prima/Butera excitement and passion for life, it will definitely have something special going for it.

By Robert L. Candiotti

On the Internet, there is the development schedule of Ivanpah Valley Airport, posted by Clark County Department of Aviation.

Page 1 of the document, dated January 23, 2008, has the name of Rosemary A. Vassiliadis, Deputy Director, Clark County Department of Aviation. The title is "Ivanpah Valley - Planning Southern Nevada's Future Full Service Commercial Airport."

The brief document states federal legislation for the creation of Ivanpah Valley Airport - which will be only the third new international airport in the U.S. in a half century - was introduced in 1998. Ivanpah Valley Airport Public Lands Transfer Act was signed in 2000.

Land purchase was completed in 2004. And the Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) Notice-To-Proceed was issued in October 2005.

The joint lead agencies for the EIS are the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and Bureau of Land Management (BLM).

According to the "Development Schedule" page of the document, the Enivronmental Impact Statement is prepared from 2005 to 2010. In 2010, the Record of Decision (ROD) is scheduled to be presented.

According to the development schedule, design of utilities, and design of airport drainage and access, run concurrently with the EIS process between 2007 and 2010.

If construction of Ivanpah is approved in the Record of Decision in 2010, construction of utilities, drainage and access will take place between 2010 and 2012.

In the development schedule, design of airport facilities will occur from 2011 until 2015. Construction of airport facilities will be undertaken from 2013 to 2017, and the airport will be operational in 2017, states the document.

However, much information now found on the Internet says the opening of Ivanpah Valley Airport will not be until 2018.

The EIS Record of Decision - scheduled for the second half of 2010 - will mark the determining moment of the development or disappearance of plans to create Ivanpah Valley Airport near the southern border of Nevada and California along Interstate 15, about 30 miles south of Las Vegas.

By Robert L. Candiotti

In a June 5, 2009, article by Lisa Mascaro in the Las Vegas Sun - "State sends no emissary to talk on fast trains" - it is reported that there was no representative from Nevada at a major high-speed train development meeting in Washington, D.C.

The gathering was hosted by Vice President Joe Biden and the secretary of the Transportation Department. According to the story, the vice president's office e-mailed invitations to the governors of all 50 states. Governors and transportation authorities from 24 states did attend.

No one was there from Nevada.

Mendy Elliott, deputy chief of staff for Nevada Governor Jim Gibbons said her office did not see an invitation from the vice president. Elliott, according to Mascaro, said the governor's office has been busy with the end of the state's legislative session.

"Unfortunately, we weren't aware of the meeting and were focused on Nevada's current state of need," Elliott is quoted as saying.

Still, Nevada has two transformational train systems that are proposed. One is a Maglev (magnetic levitation) line to connect Las Vegas and Anaheim, California, and the other is a high-speed train for operation between Las Vegas and Victorville, California.


Either of the two train lines - if built - would definitely have a Primm/Ivanpah Valley Airport stop.

It is certainly not within my purview to be critical of Nevada's absence from the meeting, but I do find it noteworthy that representatives from half of all U.S. states were there, but a liaison from Nevada - a state with deep interest in high-speed train construction - was not.