Excerpt from the minutes of the Board of Supervisors meeting of February 7, 2006

Agenda Staff Report, John Wayne Airport

JWA Capacity Allocations for 2006-2007 Plan Year

http://cams.ocgov.com/Web_Publisher_Sam/Agenda02_07_2006_files/images/A06-000041.HTM

Presumed Seat Capacity and Supplemental Seat Capacity (Class E) Allocations

A total of 13,326,294 seats were requested as part of the 2006-07 Plan Year allocation process. The Airport Director is requesting authorization to allocate a total of 12,771,764 seats in response to Air Carrier capacity requests for the 2006-07 Plan Year.

A portion of this Seat Capacity is allocated in connection with the operation of Class A ADDs and permanent Class E ADDs by the Air Carriers. The remainder of the Seat Capacity, 2,752,532 seats, is allocated via the section of the Access Plan which creates Class E operations capacity for Air Carriers. The specific Seat Capacity allocation recommendations by Air Carriers are reflected in Exhibit A to this staff report.  As indicated in Exhibit A, this Seat Capacity allocation would accommodate all of the seats requested for use during the 2006-07 Plan Year, with the exception of Southwest Airlines, which would be on the waiting list for 554,530 seats.  The essential policy objective of this recommendation is to provide the maximum feasible operational capacity to the air traveling public within the limitations defined by existing Board policy. 

The Seat Capacity allocation requested for the 2006-07 Plan Year is the same as the Seat Capacity allocation for the current 2005-06 Plan Year.  At that level, the Airport is expected to complete the current 2005-06 Plan Year with a passenger level of approximately 10,038,690, based upon an expected actual average Air Carrier load factor of approximately 76.1%. 

If the County allocates 12,771,764 seats for the 2006-07 Plan Year, as recommended, the Airport is expected to complete the 2006-07 Plan Year with passengers-served levels similar to that for the 2005-06 Plan Year (See Footnote Number 1 Below). The Air Carrier load factors during the past eight (8) years have ranged from 60.1% to 73.5%.  Because load factors have continued to increase generally at JWA, it appears appropriate to accommodate most, but not all, of the Supplemental Seat Capacity requests, in order to provide additional air travel opportunities to the public without jeopardizing the 10.3 MAP limit of the Access Plan.  Supplemental Seat (Class E) capacity is one of the "safety valves" for first withdrawal of capacity, if necessary, to allow the County to match operations with the MAP limits.
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 1. At the allocation level provided for in connection with the 2005-06 Plan Year process, the Airport would complete the 2005-06 Plan Year at the regulatory limit of 10.3  MAP only if the Air Carrier load factors at JWA exceeded 80% during the 2005-06 Plan Year and the Air Carrier operations utilized 97% of their Seat Capacity and the Commuter Carriers utilized an expected 480,903 passengers.