FAA STATES EL TORO AIRSPACE TOO CROWDED FOR SAFE AND EFFICIENT EL TORO AIRPORT

Study states new airport will cause widespread delays to Southern California airspace especially LAX.

Los Angeles, October 9, 2001: At only four million passengers per year, the proposed El Toro Airport will cause delays of up to an hour at the surrounding Southern California Airports, according to a report issued today by the FAA.  The FAA report highlights the inherent problem that El Toro critics have long proclaimed - El Toro cannot be both safe and efficient. The report stated that the proposed El Toro airport will severely impact the air traffic control system for all of Southern California and may cause frequent delays at LAX, Ontario, John Wayne and Long Beach airports.  The delays would be caused by departures from El Toro that cut perpendicular across the approach paths to the four nearby airports.

Congressman Christopher Cox (R-Newport Beach) has asked that the FAA conduct further analysis to determine the airspace impacts if the airport reaches 18.8 MAP as proposed by Orange County Chairman Cynthia Coad, and the 28.9 MAP currently considered in the county’s environmental documentation. This confirms what ETRPA has been saying all along - it is impractical to squeeze a second airport into Orange County, without compromising the entire Southern California airspace system, “ stated Paul D. Eckles, executive director of the El Toro Reuse Planning Authority.  “John Wayne is just seven miles west of El Toro.  Our skies are already among the most crowded in the world, a second major airport so close to John Wayne and LAX only makes matters worse and will do nothing to alleviate airport congestion.”

The El Toro airport plan has consistently garnered more safety concerns from within the aviation community than any other pending airport in the nation. Despite the warnings issued today, ETRPA said the FAA report makes it clear that airport critics are right - El Toro doesn’t work from an operational, feasibility and safety perspective The report underscores many of ETRPA’s long standing claims including:

Ø John Wayne Airport will have to close because of airspace conflicts.

Ø The Northern departures towards mountains and across crowded airspace is one of the most serious problems discussed in the report.  This procedure complicates the regional air traffic control system and leaves little recourse for a pilot should a problem occur such as engine failure, hydraulics failure or other emergency. The county’s claim that they can enforce an absolute prohibition, for noise mitigation, on departures on Runway 25 to the west over Irvine and Newport Beach is a myth.  Pilots will have the final say on which runway they will use, and in most cases, the safest runway will be Runway 25. Ø The report does not deny any of the safety issues raised by the Pilot’s Associations regarding takeoffs, airspace conflicts, and operational efficiency.

According to Eckles, “The board of supervisors should take this report as an indication that the airport idea for El Toro is dead. We have enough airport capacity in Orange County to satisfy our regional share of demand.  Given the events since September 11, Orange County should concentrate on many issues that are more important. The future growth will be in the Inland Empire - east of Orange County.  Coincidentally, these communities have three new airfields open, at the former Air Force Bases at March, Norton and George plus a newly remodeled Ontario Airport, which have widespread community support. These airports are more than capable of handling all the additional aviation traffic demand locally and regionally.”

The El Toro Maine Base was part of the 1993 base closure action. The future of the base has become the center of a long-standing controversy over county plans to convert the base to an international airport.  The El Toro Reuse Planning Authority (ETRPA) includes 10 cities surrounding El Toro and represents nearly 1 million people.  ETRPA was the original planning entity for El Toro, before the county adopted the airport plan and summarily excluded the cities most impacted by the base redevelopment.