Five Million Empty Seats?

FIVE MILLION EMPTY SEATS AT JWA

Utilization of John Wayne Airport is artificially limited by a 1985 agreement between Newport Beach and the County. The agreement, and its implementing “plan”, leave airlines flying with an astonishing 5 million or more empty seats.

Annually, the County gives each airline an allocation of how many seats they can fly. However, if airlines sell too many of them, the County  “withdraws” a portion of their allocation.

For the 1999-2000 “plan year”, the County authorized airlines to fly 13.0 million airplane seats in and out of John Wayne. Airport management expected the airlines to provide “a passenger-served level of approximately 7.7 million passenger”.  They actually served 7.6 million and the remaining 5.4 million seats went unused.

Airlines profit by filling their planes with passengers. Several airlines reported these latest system-wide load factors: United Airlines - 79.9 %, America West Airlines - 77.4%, American Airlines  - 79.6 %, and Delta - 82.0 %.

Airlines maximize seat utilization by offering discount fares to pleasure travelers, who fill seats not purchased by high-paying business people. Clearly, this is not happening in Orange County. The County reports that John Wayne “air carrier load factors during the last six years have ranged from 60.1% to 63.1%”. This year’s forecast is a load factor of only 60.33%.

A 1996 study by Las Vegas found that John Wayne flights had the highest percentage of empty seats of any of the 41 airports around the country that fly there.

Let’s be absolutely clear about what is going on. Seats remain empty at John Wayne because the County and Newport Beach cling to an out-dated plan to artificially limit the airport.

Free market pricing and the laws of supply and demand have been repealed in Orange County. Airlines have little incentive to cut fares to fill their planes. If they do start to fill them, the County will cut their seat allocation.

The County and Newport Beach can change their agreement. If the 1985 agreement isn't changed, it will expire in 2005. Meanwhile we pay for this violation of the basic rules of airline economics in several ways.

· The flying public pays higher fares because the airlines donut offer bargains to fill the seats, the way they do at most other airports. Ask any travel agent. The airlines are not allowed to maximize revenue from the empty seats, so we must make up the difference.

· The County loses revenue by restricting use of the airport and its recently built terminal and new parking structures.

· Orange County loses business. If you believe El Toro airport proponents, air lines bring in tourists and help the economy.

· Worst of all, we waste tax dollars: - $40 million dollars for planning, lobbying and litigating over a new airport at El Toro when we have one at John Wayne that's not being used to its best capacity.

Before we spend billions of dollars on a new airport; before we sacrifice our quality of life; lets demand that the County renegotiate the uneconomical 1985 agreement. We suggest two changes that harm no one, cost nothing and lower ticket prices.

· First - Without adding a single airplane to the skies over Orange County, or changing John Wayne’s nighttime curfew, free up the airlines to sell as many of the 5 million empty seats on the present flights as they are able.

· Second – Allow the airlines to fill newer, bigger, quieter Boeing 757’s, that already fly from John Wayne, and encourage them to phase out an equal number of older, smaller, noisier planes.

If the demand truly exists, these moves would take care of much of the county’s air passenger needs for years. Unlike building a new airport, this added capacity will come at no cost to the taxpayers and no pain to residents.