JOHN WAYNE AIRPORT
History, Settlement Agreement, Current Operations and Future

Overview of JWA capacity controls

February 1985 – The Board of Supervisors certified EIR 508 and approved the 1985 Master Plan for John Wayne Airport. It provided for 10.2 million annual passengers (MAP). The City of Newport Beach and two citizens groups initiated litigation against the plan.

November 1985 – The county and the plaintiffs entered into a litigation settlement plan limiting the airport to 337,400 square feet of terminal, 8,400 parking spaces, 14 loading bridges, 8.4 MAP and other restrictions through 2005.

December 2000 – The county and Newport Beach began to study extending certain restrictions beyond 2005.

October 2001- During the debate over El Toro reuse, the county certified EIR 573 which included Alternative F for JWA serving 14 MAP within its existing land perimeter.

February 2002 – The Board of Supervisors approved EIR 582 and selected the smallest expansion option, Scenario 1 as their preferred alternative. Scenario 1 increased the number of gates from 14 to 18 and maximum passengers to 9.8 MAP.

Alternative D, the largest option studied, would have eliminated all restrictions except for the night time curfew and maximum single event noise limit and was estimated to accommodate up to 13.9 MAP with 24 gates. As a result of the introduction of quieter aircraft, alternative D had a smaller noise impact footprint than the 1985 Master Plan.

December 2002 – 10 then current JWA airlines and 2 potential airlines commented on the selected Scenario 1 and requested additional "opportunities". In exchange for an agreement that the airlines would not oppose the project before the FAA, the parties to the Settlement Agreement approved Final EIR 582, Addendum EIR 582-1. It increased the number of gates to 20 and maximum allowed passengers in two stages to 10.8 MAP. Following the approval of the airlines, the FAA approved the settlement as conforming to federal law including the 1990 Airport Noise and Capacity Act. See more below . . .

October 2004 – A Supplemental EIR was certified accepting construction plans for implementation of the most recent (8th) amendment to the Settlement Agreement.

History of the Airport:

John Wayne Airport originated in the 1920’s as a private landing strip on Irvine Company land. In 1939, the airport became publicly owned, through a land swap between the Irvine Company and the County. It served temporarily as a military base during World War II and was returned to the County with the deed stipulation that it remain open to  aviation or other non manufacturing and non industrial uses.

A 22,000 square foot terminal was built in 1967 to accommodate 0.4 million annual passengers (MAP).  There were other smaller additions made leading up to the major Airport Improvement Project of the late 1980’s.

The Orange County Airport was renamed in honor of John Wayne is 1979.

A 1985 Master Plan for the airport showed that passenger demand increased from 3,685,000 in 1970 to 7,142,000 in 1980, and "unconstrained passenger demand was projected to increase to 14,130,000 in 1995."

From 1981 on, the County on one side, and the City of Newport Beach, with two residents’ groups, the Airport Working Group, and Stop Polluting Our Newport, on the other side, were engaged in litigation in both state and federal courts.

1985 Settlement Agreement:

In order to end the litigation, the County, and the City of Newport Beach with the Airport Working Group and Stop Polluting Our Newport, reached the Airport Settlement Agreement of 1985. This was a court approved stipulation as to mutually acceptable regulations for the development of John Wayne. The Final Judgment of City of Newport Beach vs. County of Orange was filed December 13, 1985 in U.S. District Court, Case No. CV85-1542 TJH (Mcx).

The Agreement limited virtually every aspect of airport operations. 

• Passengers limited to 8.4 million annual passengers... less than 60% of the earlier Master Plan projection demand.

• A maximum of 73 average daily Class A and AA departures, no more than 39 of which may be louder than commercial Class A aircraft  (Single Event Noise Levels between 89.5 and 100.), e.g.. MD-80.  No planes louder than SENEL 100, e.g..     B737-200.

• Terminal size not to exceed 337,900 square feet.

• Parking spaces not to exceed 8,400, not including North parking.  There were  4,500 available next to the main terminal.

• Loading bridges are limited to 14 with no more than 9 serving Boeing 767 size aircraft.

• Curfews established on the hours of operation. Departures are limited to between 7 AM and 10 PM,  Monday - Saturday and 8 AM to 10 PM on Sundays. Arrivals are allowed until 11 PM, Monday - Sunday.

The Agreement stated that “Recognizing that JWA is incapable of satisfying the demand for air travel in Orange County, this settlement is also designed to permit studies regarding possible future development of an additional airport to serve Orange County.”  The County will not prevent a qualified entity or consortium from seeking funding for studies concerning a site for an additional airport. While the Agreement refers to studies of other sites within the County, it does not appear to preclude study of sites outside of the County, that could help satisfy the aviation demand.

The Settlement Agreement was modified in 1995 to allow Federal Express and UPS to operate one daily flight each for air cargo.

Click here for the full text of the original 1985 Settlement Agreement. Adobe Acrobat required.

Incremental Expansion of John Wayne:

Following the 1985 settlement, the Airport Improvement Project was begun.

The Airport issued $242,440,000 in Airport Revenue Bonds in 1987, due in the year 2018, to finance the construction. It was the largest public works project in the County's history.  The bonds are payable solely from revenue at the airport and are not general obligations of the County.

The bond indenture provides that if the county operates another airport, (such as El Toro), which causes John Wayne to be unable to meet the debt service requirements, then the the debt obligation will be transferred to the new airport. County staff has also stated that outstanding JWA debt at shutdown could be repaid from cash reserves set aside for capital improvements.

The Thomas F. Riley Terminal (Named for a former member of the Board of Supervisors.) was opened to the public on September 16, 1990. It conforms to the maximum size allowed by the Agreement.

In 1999, the county added 2,000 more parking spaces, at a cost of $27 million.

El Toro as an alternate to JWA: 

Newport Beach  fought for many years to promote an airport at El Toro.  Containment or closure of John Wayne to commercial aviation were the likely outcomes from building a commercial airport at El Toro.

On December 11, 1996, the Board of Supervisors approved Environmental Impact Report 563 and a Community Reuse Plan that called for the closing of John Wayne Airport to "all commercial aviation operations",  if El Toro was built.

As a political concession, the Supervisors then directed county staff to "study" a two-airport system.  In April 1998, the 3 member majority on the Board of Supervisors approved such a plan, with John Wayne and El Toro linked by a "people mover". This concept was later scrapped.

The airline industry has given numerous technical and economic reasons why a two-commercial-airport system would not fly.  For a more complete review of the two-airport  issue click here.

In 2001, an airspace study for the FAA showed severe conflict between El Toro and John Wayne air traffic.

In EIR 573, John Wayne was projected to shrink to about 5 million annual passengers. Many expected it to lose commercial viability and close if El Toro was approved.

Settlement Agreement Amendment of 2002

In 2000-01, during the fight over El Toro, the City of Newport Beach proposed that the Settlement Agreement be extended until 2025 with no changes. 

Environmental Impact Report EIR 582 subsequently studied several alternatives. Scenario 3 proposed an airport layout with 24 gates. The county adopted the smallest expansion alternative, Scenario 1 to increase the number of gates from 14 to 18 and to increase the passenger MAP cap from 8.4 to 9.8.

Following negotiations with the airlines using the airport, a larger compromise was reached. It was approved by the FAA on December 31, 2002.

• increases in permitted passenger service levels from 8.4 Million Annual Passengers under the 1985 agreement to 10.3 MAP effective January 1, 2003, and to 10.8 Million Annual Passengers in 2011 until at least December 31, 2015 or the subsequent completion of a new environmental impact study.
  

• up to six additional passenger loading bridges for a total of 20
  

• an increase in the number of noise regulated flights allocated to passenger commercial carriers at JWA from 73 average daily departures (ADDs) to 85 ADDs

• and the flexibility to allocate two previously approved additional cargo flights to passenger carriers on a temporary basis.

Current Operations:

The settlement agreement allows 10.3 MAP until 2011. The cap then increases to 10.8 MAP until December 31, 2015 and remains there unless changed by the county through the CEQA (EIR) process.

In EIR 573, the County examined but did not support alternatives for expanding John Wayne to 14 and 25 million annual passengers.

EIR 582 gives the unconstrained capacity of the airport runway system as 13.9 MAP with the current large percentage of general aviation flights as a factor.  (See MCAS El Toro Community Reuse Plan, Appendix C. page 21 and EIR 582 Alternative D) 

John Wayne Airport's ability to serve a greater percentage of the growing air travel needs of Orange County residents and business is limited in several ways:

First and foremost, the airport's capacity is limited by Board of Supervisor policy. It is the Board's policy, and that of the voters as evidenced by the defeat of the El Toro airport proposal, to serve most of the county's air travel needs at airports in other counties. The Board, by agreements with Newport Beach, creates numerical limits on the number of a annual passengers (the MAP cap) and other JWA restrictions. The Board also provides policy direction to the airport manager for balancing the transportation needs of the flying public against the competing environmental needs of those who live near the airport.

If the MAP cap were raised, the number of passenger gates to load and unload aircraft would likely be the next limitation on the airport. JWA reports that it has the highest ratio of passengers to gates of any comparable airport in the nation. While JWA's single commercial runway imposes limitations on the airport, San Diego's single runway airport serves almost twice as many passengers by providing more gates.

In 2002, Environmental Impact Report EIR 582 examined several scenarios for expanding John Wayne's terminal. Scenario 3 provided a layout plan for 24 gates and a lifting of the passenger caps. Scenario 3 "assumed" that traffic could rise to 12.3 MAP if there was no change in fleet mix, load factor remained at 0.66 (which is too low by today's standards) and additional flights were distributed throughout the day as at present with no effort made to add traffic at slow times to better utilize the facility.

However, Newport Beach successfully lobbied other "corridor cities" and the county to choose the smallest EIR alternative, Scenario 1 with 18 gates, and to keep a cap on passenger utilization.

The allowed number of gates was subsequently increased to 20 at the insistence of the airlines and after Newport Beach concluded that the additional gates would have little impact on its residents.

In 2005, plans were approved for a $512 million expansion of the airport to add 300,000 square feet of terminal, six more loading bridges for a total of 20, 2,500 parking spaces, a customs area and other land side improvements. Nighttime curfews and single event noise limits would be unchanged. The cost estimate was subsequently increased. There is no published projection of what increased passenger capacity would result from this project.  It is anticipated that constructing the 20-gate design may foreclose the airport's ability to add more at a later date.

Charles Griffin, a Newport Beach activist who is technically knowledgeable about the airport, opinions that the new $1/2 billion expansion program for JWA is "not justified" economically because it would add only 1 more gate and not 6 as generally reported. He figures that 5 of the new loading bridges would replace existing ground level gates so that the total number of gates increases from the current 19 to 20.

A former airport commissioner tells us that loading bridges have a greater thru put than ground level gates so there is some capacity gain, but no one is saying how much.

The city of Newport Beach sought to negotiate long-term restrictions on airport growth, including the length of the runway, by combining the airport and several unrelated issues in a "spheres issue" package proposed to the county. The concept was to offer the county economic incentives to give the city a veto over runway extensions and expansion of the airport perimeter. In October, 2006, the Board of Supervisors agreed to grant the city runway veto without setting any economic conditions or obtaining any meaningful reciprocal concessions.

The city also seeks to maintain the level of general aviation use of John Wayne as an obstacle to greater commercial aviation use. General aviation occupies a substantial acreage at the airport and constitutes a majority of the runway operations.

The Settlement Agreement, as amended in 2002-3, limits the airport's maximum utilization to 10.8 MAP from 2011 through 2015. The limitations continue thereafter until modified by action of the Board of Supervisors by an EIR prepared in accordance with the California Environmental Quality Act CEQA.

With the passage of Measure W, and rejection of the El Toro project, some Los Angeles leaders are pressing Orange County to carry more of the region's aviation burden. Efforts are underway to reactivate the Southern California Regional Airport Authority. It is possible that this could result in pressure to revisit John Wayne airport's passenger service potential.

Prepared by the El Toro Info Site  from court documents, Board of Supervisors' resolutions, airport revenue bond disclosures, EIR's and airport staff publications. Updated July 24, 2007
 

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