Week of March 29 - April 4, 2010
Long Beach Airport modernization on track - Press-Telegram
After years of delay brought on by political and legal wrangling, work is under way on a $136-million, multiyear modernization project at Long Beach Airport, the facility's first redevelopment in decades.
Construction, which began in earnest this month with work on a $49-million parking garage, is expected to rapidly improve vehicle traffic flow and parking while easing passenger congestion in and around the historic art deco property.
Work comes nearly a year after the California Fourth District Court of Appeals upheld an expansion environmental impact report, which had been challenged by the Long Beach Parent-Teacher Association. The organization sued the city out of concern the project would unreasonably increase noise and pollution levels by causing a spike in passenger volumes.
Keep asking questions about the Great Park - OC Register letters
Website Editor: The Register has been asking questions about the Great Park and political donations from GP contractors. In a series of Op-Ed exchanges, we picked up this interesting comment from Robert Loewen, President, Lincoln Club of Orange County about a subject that once was so passionate..
While Mr. Agran is calling other people names about being “pro-airport” – which, by the way, is so last century – perhaps he can explain to the people of Irvine how it is that, in over a decade of spending millions on public relations, he has failed to remove even one square foot of the runways at the former Marine Base at El Toro.
Week of March 22 - March 28, 2010
2010 air traffic shows a glimmer of hope but is still way down
Air travel at the six commercial airports making up the SCAG Southern California region - LAX, SNA, ONT, BUR, LGB and PSP - picked up a bit with traffic for January and February totaling approximately 5 percent more than for the same period last year. Los Angeles International Airport led the way with a year-to-year improvement of 6.3 percent.
Traffic in the first two months of 2010 is still approximately 8 percent below what it was in 2001, prior to the 9-11 terrorist attacks.
Virgin sends O.C. 'Dear John Wayne' letter - OC Register
Virgin America dropped Orange County fast and hard. It was the airport equivalent of coming home and finding your bags on the porch. On a Wednesday afternoon, Virgin told John Wayne Airport it would announce Thursday morning that it was leaving in 90 days – the minimum warning time.
Perhaps we should have seen it coming. Virgin had come here on the rebound. Word was Chicago had spurned the airline's advances and we were available.
At first, everything seemed to be going well – maybe too well. American Airlines threw in the towel on the four way competition into San Francisco. Virgin's fares, which started out on par with Southwest, began to climb. Demand was filling up the lowest fare seats.
Virgin never got serious. No extra flights. No new destinations.
All along, Virgin had a wandering eye. When the Department of Transportation loosened some rules that had limited the airline's long haul ambitions, the "Dear John Wayne" letter went out in a flash. Virgin was leaving us for Orlando and Toronto.
Supervisor doesn't support Legacy plan John Moorlach - Daily Pilot
The Daily Pilot’s March 23 article, “Proposal causes riddle,” revolves around whether the proposed Legacy Aviation Center hangar increases the footprint of John Wayne Airport. Website Editor: See related article below.
My office has made a preliminary review of their proposal. Although it is not yet before the Orange County Board of Supervisors, the legislative body that oversees our county’s airport, I want to be on the record that I do not support the proposal at this time.
Alan Murphy, JWA’s director, informed [Legacy] that he would not support a project that included a private property owner having direct access to the airport. There are a number of legal, regulatory and security issues that make that approach problematic.
There were a number of facility limitations in the original agreement made in 1985 between the corridor cities, all of which dealt with commercial operations and not general aviation. There were no “footprint” restrictions. The most recent amendment removed all of these restrictions with the exception of the number of gates.
However, to conclude with my opening remarks, I oppose further “expansion” of JWA (versus a remodel), and I will not support any proposal that, directly or indirectly, would lead to such a result.
Week of March 15 - March 21, 2010
Luxury hangar raises JWA expansion worries - OC Register
Plans for a luxury corporate-jet hangar are stoking ever-present embers of concern about aircraft noise at John Wayne Airport, with observers debating whether it amounts to expanding the aviation hub.
Local activists . . . say that the hangar "expands the footprint" of John Wayne because it would incorporate an adjacent 2-acre property into the airport.
The proposal could split traditional allies in the fight to contain John Wayne. Heather Summers, board member of residents group AirFair, said at a recent meeting that her group endorses the project.
"If you are supporting general aviation" – corporate jets – "you are therefore potentially thwarting commercial aviation," Summers said.
But at the same meeting, Robert Hawkins of the activists group Airport Working Group worried of unintended consequences.
Creating a new hangar frees up runway space and "could allow ... for additional commercial carriers," Hawkins said, cautioning that he was speaking for himself, not his group.
Virgin America plans to end service to John Wayne Airport - OC Metro
Virgin America has announced that it plans to stop service to Orange County this spring. The decision comes about a year after the airline first debuted in the region.
The move is a result of the airline's decision to add new flights to Orlando International from San Francisco and LAX, according to a statement released by the company. Virgin America has also submitted an application with the Department of Transportation to fly from the U.S. to Toronto by this summer.
“Despite our relatively strong performance at SNA (John Wayne Airport), given our new fleet plan and network prospects, we’ve made the decision to focus on the immediate long-haul opportunities that the Orlando and Toronto markets provide," says Virgin America President and CEO David Cush.
The airport will continue to offer service to San Francisco International through Southwest Airlines, United and United Express, according to spokeswoman Jenny Wedge.
Moving forward, the destination has a waiting list of airlines interested in adding service in Orange County, including Air Tran, WestJet and Horizon Air.
"We will be contacting them to let them know we may have some opportunities for them to start service," finishes Wedge.
Website Editor: We wonder why these other airlines were left on the waiting list while JWA traffic declined in 2008 and 2009.
JetBlue to shift 2 flights from Long Beach to LAX - Daily Breeze
JetBlue Airlines is pulling two of its 14 daily nonstop flights between Long Beach and the East Coast as it expands service out of Los Angeles International.
Beginning July 1, JetBlue will offer one less daily flight between both Long Beach and Boston and Long Beach and New York. The carrier will then double its daily service between LAX and New York, from two to four.
The airline said the decision was based on demand for early morning flights, which have increased considerably since JetBlue launched the LAX route last June.
JetBlue will use the open slots at Long Beach to offer daily flights to Portland and Seattle.
Bob Hope Airport again seeks permanent curfew on nighttime flights - L.A. Now
Bob Hope Airport officials announced plans Monday to make the current voluntary nighttime curfew mandatory -- five months after federal officials rejected a nine-year, multimillion-dollar application for nighttime flight restrictions.
Joyce Streator, president of the Burbank-Glendale-Pasadena Airport Authority, said the authority has begun discussions with airlines on converting the existing voluntary nighttime curfew between 10 p.m. and 6:59 a.m. into a permanent mandatory restriction for all passenger-air carriers.
Week of March 8 - March 14, 2010
Editor’s Notebook:Focusing on common goals - Daily Pilot
Time has healed many of the wounds inflicted during the divisive El Toro airport debate of the 1990s and early 2000s.
Evidence of that came by way of Irvine Mayor Larry Agran, who addressed the Airport Working Group’s annual meeting this week at the Balboa Yacht Club in Newport Beach.
The reason El Toro airport proponents and opponents can now work well together, Agran explained, is that the debate “never got personal” and was conducted with dignity. (See link to a typical AWG cartoon and say that with a straight face.)
Agran’s speech was well received by the AWG members, largely because it eschewed past problems and focused on what the Irvine mayor called the cities’ common goals: reducing air traffic by diverting more flights to Los Angeles and the Inland Empire; moving toward rail and shuttle buses to get people out of their cars; cleaning up the region’s air; and continuing to build a regional park that everyone hopes will indeed be great.
Chapman Law School Professor Mario Mainero, who is the airport assistant to county Supervisor John Moorlach, delivered a passionate speech about keeping the settlement agreement in place that restricts JWA’s uses beyond its expiration date for passenger limits in 2015 and curfews in 2020.
U.S. airlines flew fewer passengers in 2009 - USA Today
U.S. airlines flew fewer passengers last year than at any time since 2004 and are likely to have a slower return to profitability than their peers in Asia and Latin America, according to two reports out Thursday.
The number of domestic and international travelers ferried by U.S. carriers for all of 2009 dropped 5.3% from the year before, according to preliminary data released by the U.S. Department of Transportation's Bureau of Transportation Statistics.
But the planes were fuller than ever, largely because airlines cut back on flights or moved to smaller planes. U.S. carriers set a record, with flights that were on average 80.4% full systemwide in 2009, according to the report.
Website Editor: Air travel in Southern California was down by 6.7 percent in 2009 from 2008 levels.
JWA continues gradual recovery
Airline passenger traffic at John Wayne Airport increased in February 2010 as compared to February 2009. In February 2010, the Airport served 599,114 passengers, an increase of 2.8% when compared to the 583,016 passenger traffic count of February 2009.
Commercial Carrier
flight operations increased 0.5%, while Commuter Carrier operations
decreased 56.1% when compared to February 2009.
We previously noted
that the volume of commuter flights has fallen roughly in half at a
time when the airport is constructing expanded facilites for smaller
regional aircraft.
El Toro judgments stand or fall with time - OC Register
Opinions on building an airport look different 10 years after key vote.
Every good public policy debate has its competing claims, and 10 years after a pivital vote to block an airport at the closed El Toro Marine Corps base it's a bit easier to tell who was right and who was wrong.
The Orange County Register compared what they said with what eventually happened and found that some were spot on and others not so much.
Scroll the photos online to see who got it right. E.g. Orange County Supervisor Charles Smith said: "We have not done a very good job of promoting this airport. "
Supervisor Tom Wilson said, pretty correctly, "If El Toro hadn't closed, no one would be pressuring for expansion of JWA because the demand isn't there."
JWA Airport Director Alan Murphy backed his bosses in the county and said, "To meet regional demand, you need LAX (expansion) and El Toro."
See our 10 year comments below.
Week of March 1 - March 7, 2010
Voters killed El Toro Airport on March 7, 2000 - website media release
Ten years ago, on March 7, 2000 Orange County Measure F won 67 percent of the vote to kill the El Toro commercial airport project. Measure F, The Safe and Healthy Communities Initiative was placed on the ballot by thousands of volunteer petition gatherers who collected a record setting 195,000 signatures.
Passage of Measure F stopped county officials’ plans to build a multi-billion dollar commercial airport at the site of the former El Toro Marine Corps Air Station. If built, it would have been the second largest airport in California.
The county’s project was opposed by the El Toro Reuse Planning Authority, ETRPA, and by activist grass roots organizations. They feared that the airport would bring noise, pollution, traffic and blight to a large section of the county.
The project was supported by the City of Newport Beach and residents living near John Wayne Airport. They hoped that a second county airport would divert air traffic from JWA.
El Toro would have been a multi-billion dollar financial disaster for Orange County, possibly worse than the bankruptcy of 1994. Southern California air travel has yet to recover to its pre-9-11 levels. Revenue from John Wayne and El Toro combined probably would be insufficient to service the huge bond debt required to build this second county airport.
No airline ever came out in support of El Toro. Several airline officials and the airline pilots unions made it clear that they opposed having two Orange County airports only seven miles apart.
Measure F was eventually overturned by the courts but its passage broke the county government’s forward momentum on the project and stalled most of the planning.
Passage of Measure F set the stage for Measure W, which passed in 2002 and changed the County General Plan to rezone the former Marine base for non-aviation use. The Navy eventually sold the land and the City of Irvine annexed it with a portion designated for the Orange County Great Park.
Pro and anti-airport forces spent over $150 million dollars on the El Toro project and the fight that killed it.
Hawaii flights return to O.C. - OC Register
Continental Airlines launches OC-Hawaii service today. The service is the first non-stops offered between OC and the islands in two years.
For the first time in two years, an airliner will take off to the west from John Wayne Airport – and keep on going.
The airline will offer daily flights to and from Honolulu and four-times-a-week service to and from Maui. Both routes will be served by long-range Boeing 737-700 aircraft.
Newport prepares to hold the line on JWA utilization
Tony Khoury, President of the Airport Working Group recently sent an open letter to Orange County Supervisor John Moorlach. The letter was printed in part in the Daily Pilot. and further condensed here.
For more than 25 years the Airport Working Group has been concerned about the impact of aircraft operations at John Wayne Airport. The group was a signatory to the 1985 Settlement Agreement, which was later amended and expires Dec. 31, 2015.
We are compelled to write this letter because we believe now is the time to consider the future of the airport and the surrounding communities.
The future of JWA factors into the plans of the city of Newport Beach as well as the surrounding communities. Simply put, the impact of JWA’s future operations will determine essential aspects of life in our cities.
JWA is already the second-largest airport, in terms of service, in the region and as a result Orange County carries more than its fair share of the air passenger demand for the region. County residents have previously recognized this when they rejected the proposed larger airport facilities at El Toro. In fact, people have moved to Orange County to escape the urbanization of Los Angeles.
No purpose is served by delaying an extension until expiration of the agreement is imminent; and there is much to be gained by taking the necessary steps to be proactive and extend it now.
Website Editor: The Newport Beach City Council was briefed on January 26 by City Manager Kiff who adressed the city's goals for 2010 relative to the airport.
Kipp advised that Supervisor Moorlach said “2011 is the year to discuss [extension of] the settlement agreement.”
He advised the council that the current agreement remains in force indefinitely beyond 2015 unless a majority of the Board of Supervisors votes otherwise and amends it.
