Comments on: Is the expansion at John Wayne Airport necessary?

By: casual observer

casual observer — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 17:16:59 +0000

Recent press stories have reported that one of the terminals at Ontario airport has been closed because of declining passenger traffic and airline cutbacks. Seems that Ontario and OC’s John Wayne are going in opposition directions. Regional coordination anyone?

By: Leonard Kranser

Leonard Kranser — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 16:22:11 +0000

Sorry about the runways at JWA, Cynic, but the Board of Supervisors gave Newport Beach a veto over any lengthening of the runways. This gift to NPB and departing Supervisor Jim Silva was approved 3-2 in October 2006 with nothing consequential being asked in return.

Now, Board Chairman Moorlach is leading the charge to permanently cap JWA at 10.8 million annual passengers when the current agreement between Newport and the county expires in 2015.

Even the Orange County Transportation Authority is in on the game, giving NPB and Costa Mesa $200,000 dollars to study ways to get passengers to go someplace else by bus or train.

By: Ron & Anna Winship

Ron & Anna Winship — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 08:28:03 +0000

*YOu don’t have to be from South County to know that the City of Irvine, Lake Forest, Mission Viejo, Laguna Hills, Laguna Niquel and the El Toro Y……are thrilled and delighted that another 11 to 40 Million people are not passing by on their roadways to a gigantic International Airport. Instead, they are quite content to rest on their laurels and the Great Weed Park! No matter, we saved our area and our county. Evidently the prior writer didn’t live her in 1976 of before! When Tom Reilly built out the great Orange County Airport……it guaranteed that pollution would be our companion in Newport Beach, Costa Mesa, Tustin, Villa Park and beyond.
Air Fair is doing something…like stating the obvious – We don’t want “unnecessary” additional flights. This is much akin to trying to hold back the tide and the Agreement with the FAA and Government even has expansion provisions which allow for further growth as the years go by. 14 Million MAP….in a couple of years. The current build out of JWA….includes more indoor Airport Terminal Parking, an International Customs Station and several more Gates. In spite of the litany of Supervisor Moorlach this isn’t just exactly “chopped liver”.

By: Cynic

Cynic — Sun, 30 Nov 2008 19:42:00 +0000

Since Irvine and the south county NIMBYs unethically maneuvered to deny the rest of us the use of an airport that was ours to develop as a great commercial enterprise, John Wayne’s been restricted by the Newport NIMBYs with these ridiculous caps that further constrain trade and travel here.

The local ladies clubs, Air Fair and the Airport Working group have just been rolled by Costa Mesa and Newport as well. Their “effectiveness” as lobbyists is a joke — even Moorlach’s told them so.

It’s time to recognize that JWA is our only outlet and expansion of it is a good thing if it will attract more flights. It’s also time to extend the runway (or add another?) to accommodate wide bodies. The airport can afford it as the article clearly states they’re making money (congrats to Alan Murphy on that — one of the best managers in county government).

Let’s hope these artificial capacity constraints go away as they expire and we can expand JWA to support our long term air travel needs.

One last thing — when you environmentalists start slamming this comment with your non-sensical remarks over the myth of greenhouse gas production, consider how much gas you’re burning driving to LAX to get those flights you can’t find out of JWA.