Obama's L.A. Visit Will Affect Air Traffic at SMO

President Barack Obama is visiting Los Angeles on Thursday, and while residents have been bracing themselves for anticipated traffic jams, air traffic will be affected as well. That includes aircraft landing at and departing from .

Between 2:30 p.m. on Thursday and 9 a.m. on Friday, only select aircraft will be allowed to fly within 10 miles of SMO. That includes airlines, law-enforcement aircraft and air-ambulance aircraft that have been previously approved. Private-aircraft pilots will not be allowed to do so.

Private-aircraft pilots also won't be able to land at or depart from airports that are located within 10 to 30 miles from SMO. They will, however, be able to fly through the airspace so long as air-traffic controllers aren't overwhelmed by the amount of air traffic.

Also, in order to fly through that airspace, private-aircraft pilots will be required to have filed their flight plans in advance, to be in contact with air-traffic controllers and to use transponders.

For more on SMO, check out "."

City News Service contributed to this report.