JWA sees continued recovery
Airline
passenger traffic at John Wayne Airport increased in September 2013 as
compared
to September 2012. In September 2013, the Airport served 728,971
passengers, an increase of 3.0% when compared to the September 2012
passenger
traffic count of 707,510.
Commercial
aircraft operations increased 3.4%, while Commuter aircraft operations
decreased 34.9% when compared to the levels recorded in September 2012.
“Our vision was to provide the highest level of customer service and create a space which is resortlike,” airport director Mario Rodriguez said. “We wanted to create something world class without spending a bunch of money.”
The results have been encouraging. The new concourse was named the 2013 Aviation Project of the Year by the California Transportation Foundation.
But even before the new terminal opened, the airport was doing well. Notably, the number of departures at Long Beach Airport rose 1.3 percent between 2007 and 2012, according to calculations by researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
It may not seem like a lot, but during that period, as fuels costs rose and the economy faltered, airlines slashed flights at midsize airports nationwide. At L.A./Ontario International Airport, the number of departures dropped by about half, while at Burbank Bob Hope Airport, departures fell by about 25 percent, M.I.T. researchers concluded.
Being customer friendly has helped, but Long Beach airport has countered trends for a couple of other key reasons. First, it has one dominant airline — Jetblue Airways — that considers the West Coast its center of operations and has invested heavily at the airport. And second, Long Beach is located in a demographically strong area filled with a near perfect combination of leisure and business travelers.
Long Beach’s noise ordinance also helps. Because Jetblue has the vast majority of takeoff rights, called slots, it is insulated against new entrants on its routes. Jetblue has the rights to 32 daily departures. Among carriers operating large jets. US Airways has the second most slots, with five.
“To some effect it has limited the competition at that airport,” said Michael D. Wittman, an author of the M.I.T. study comparing midsize airport traffic.
Airlines generally refer to revenue per passenger as “Yield.” “If the airlines didn’t have the yield they have, we would look like Ontario,” said Rodriguez, the airport manager. “Our airlines have extremely high yield. That’s why they are here. It’s a free market economy. Airlines will serve the high yielding market. We are here because the airlines have a high yield on the product. The proof is there. We are steady as she goes. Ontario has dropped.”
ONTARIO: Canceled flights cause for concern at Inland airport - Press Enterprise
Canceled flights aren’t as big a deal at other airports, because people can usually get on another airline or flight within an hour or two.
At ONT, they’re a big problem, because passengers don’t have a lot of alternatives. Fewer and fewer flights are being offered at the Inland airport.
Even Southwest, Ontario’s biggest carrier, has slashed flights from 61 to 30 per day.
Ontario International has lost more than 40 percent of its passenger volume since 2007 because of airline cutbacks.
Unfortunately, Los Angeles World Airports seems to be setting up Ontario to fail. At an Oct. 1 Board of Airport Commissioners meeting, ONT’s part-time manager, Jess Romo, implied Inland residents need to put up or shut up.
“We’ve heard a lot of criticism” from Inland residents, Romo said. “We want folks out there to use your airport (ONT).”
So if Inland residents fly from other SoCal airports because their ONT flight is canceled, or because flights are $100 to $200 more at ONT, LAWA officials will blame them for ONT’s decline.
October 21 - October 27, 2013
JWA's small-plane pilots feel crowded out - OC Register
John Wayne Airport might have fallen victim to trends affecting general aviation nationwide, but some general aviation pilots think airport officials' priority is on commercial passenger service, to the detriment of little guys.
As recently as 1990, small planes were the airport's mainstay, making up nearly 90 percent of John Wayne's 523,000 takeoffs and landings that year. That made John Wayne the third most active general aviation airfield in the country, reports the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association.
Last year, small planes accounted for 172,000 of John Wayne's 286,000 takeoffs and landings – about 60 percent. Student pilots, who practice landings and takeoffs, make up a large part of that activity.
Aviation experts, pilots and airport management say that John Wayne has fallen victim to the same trends affecting general aviation nationwide, including the high cost of owning and maintaining a private plane and the skyrocketing cost of aviation fuel.
But general aviation pilots also think airport officials' priority is now on commercial passenger service, to the detriment of little guys.
Website Editor: The City of Newport Beach has adopted an Airport Policy to "opposes any plan or project that proposes any significant change to, the existing level of general aviation operations, the current level of general aviation support facilities or the General Aviation Noise Ordinance."
Retention of general aviation operations thwarts the expansion of commercial service.
General aviation facilities occupy space on the airport that could be used to increase the limited number of commercial aircraft Remain Overnight (RON) parking spots. RON spots are needed for planes to be in position for morning takeoffs. For example, carriers with flights that arrive from the east in the evening may have to send them back as less popular overnight "red-eyes" if they cannot hold the planes at JWA overnight for more popular morning departures.
October 14 - October 20, 2013
Hawaiian to add flight from LA to Kauai and Kona in summer - OC Register
Hawaiian Airlines plans to start seasonal non-stop service from Los Angeles to Kauai and the Kona side of the Big Island next summer, flying wide-body Boeing 767 aircraft.
A Hawaiian official recently told the Register that there are no plans to serve Orange County. John Wayne Airport has been without nonstop flight to Hawaii since United ended service to Honolulu in April 2012.
Coastal residents decry JWA noise,
pollution - OC Register
Coastal residents sounded off about jet noise, flight paths and
pollution at a meeting Thursday night to gather public input for an
environmental study at John Wayne Airport.
The environmental study is one of the steps needed to update an
agreement, expiring at the end of 2015, which governs noise, passenger
levels and flights at John Wayne Airport. The public will have a chance
to review the draft report in early 2014.
Meeting Thursday about John Wayne
Environmental Impact Report
The NOP is intended to notify specific parties that an EIR is being prepared. It includes a description and the location of the project as well as probable environmental effects of the project to be analyzed in the EIR. A copy of the NOP is available on JWA’s website at: www.ocair.com/NOP. Additional information about the Settlement Agreement can be found at www.ocair.com/communityrelations/settlementagreement/.
JWA will be hosting a Scoping Meeting in conjunction with the NOP comment period. The meeting will be open to the public and will take place on Thursday, October 17, 2013, from 6:00 pm to 8:00 pm in the Airport Commission room in JWA’s administrative offices located at 3160 Airway Avenue, Costa Mesa. Airport staff and the primary EIR consultant (BonTerra) will be present to discuss the environmental review process and receive comments.
New terminal at Bob Hope Airport would be two-thirds larger than old one - LA Times
The replacement terminal would be 355,102 square feet, compared with 210,599 square feet in the existing terminal, according to information presented to the Burbank-Glendale-Pasadena Airport Authority last week. The new terminal would have the same number of gates as the current one: 14.
With 144,503 square feet of additional space, the new terminal would provide such things as better accessibility for the disabled, more and larger restrooms, larger waiting areas, expanded security screening areas and more spacious baggage claims.
If approved, the replacement terminal would be completed in five to seven years.
October 7 - October 13, 2013
Airport officials go big with Bob Hope terminal plans - Burbank Leader
But they say preliminary figure may be reduced as the project matures.
The new terminal planned for Bob Hope Airport would be up to 68% larger than the current facility, officials said this week.
The replacement terminal would have 14 gates, the same as the current building. However, it’s planned to be 355,102 square feet in size, compared to the existing 210,599-square-foot terminal, according to information presented to the Burbank-Glendale-Pasadena Airport Authority on Monday.
Dan Feger, the airport’s executive director, said Tuesday that the size of the new terminal might eventually be pared down, but the current figure will be used in the project’s environmental impact study, which is slated to begin before the end of the year.
The existing terminal is 80 years old and would be demolished to make way for expanded airplane taxi-way space after the completion of a new terminal.
Website Editor: By comparison, John Wayne Airport's new third terminal is almost 300,000 square feet in size but provides only six gates.
Does LAX Hold the Key to American Airlines' Future in Asia? The Street
Merger or no merger, American needs to get stronger in Asia and Los Angeles International Airport may offer its best hope to do that. But LAX, despite holding vast advantages as an Asian gateway, is a tough place to bulk up because it is both intensely competitive and geographically impaired.
Delta and United, American's primary competitors, benefit not only from the post-World War II treaties that offered predecessors Northwest and Pan Am access to Asia, but also from strong positions at the other key West Coast airports -- San Francisco International and Seattle Tacoma International.
San Francisco is so strong a hub that United plans to try a new airplane, the Boeing 787 Dreamliner, to fly to Chengdu, China, which has never before had non-stop service from the U.S.
Delta, meanwhile, is growing rapidly in Seattle, the closest major U.S. mainland airport to many Asia destinations. Delta said last week it will add 11 new domestic flights from West Coast cities (including Los Angeles) to Seattle in order to feed its six daily non-stops to Asia.
That leaves LAX, the third-busiest U.S. airport in 2012 with 64 million passengers, as well as the third-busiest U.S. international gateway after John F. Kennedy International and Miami International, as the best opportunity for a West Coast, Asia-oriented hub for American.
Unfortunately, it's tough to gain an edge at LAX, where four carriers -- the big three plus Southwest -- each have more than 10% of the traffic. According to airport figures for the first eight months of 2013, United had a 16.9% passenger share; American had 16%; Delta had 13.2%; and Southwest had 11.1%. In other words, every single domestic route presents a challenge, making it hard to build feed for international routes even as the vast amount of local Los Angeles traffic to Asia makes them seem alluring.
American does have some advantages at LAX, starting with a large presence by its Oneworld partners. Air Berlin, British Airways, Cathay Pacific, Iberia, Japan Airlines, LAN, Malaysian and Qantas all serve LAX.
Also American's Terminal Four is one of the two closest terminals to newly renovated Tom Bradley International Terminal, where most international carriers operate. The layout enables departing passengers who are connecting to international airline partners avoid going through security twice.
A problem is that LAX is too far south to be the most efficient gateway for Asia traffic to and from the large business centers of the U.S. interior. "The great circle from LAX to Incheon (Korea) or Narita runs right over San Francisco and close to Seattle," Rederer said. "For the Northeast, which generates a large share of the Asia premium traffic, LAX is very circuitous except to or from Southeast Asia and Oceania.
Bob Hope Airport numbers continue to fade - Burbank Leader
Bob Hope Airport continued its summer slump as the number of passengers traveling through the airport slid by more than 7% in August.
The airport handled 336,361 passengers in July, an almost 7.3% decrease compared to 362,763 in August 2012, according to statistics released by the Burbank-Glendale-Pasadena Airport Authority on Monday.
The drop continues a summer-long decline in passenger numbers, with a decline of roughly 3.5% in June and 8.2% in July. Dan Feger, the airport's executive director, said that although the airport saw an expected bump from July’s 318,859 passengers, the August numbers were still below what the airport had projected in its budget for the month.
Meanwhile, other airports in the region reported a mixed bag of passenger totals in August. Los Angeles International Airport and John Wayne Airport saw 3.9% and 1.5% hikes, respectively. However, Ontario Airport reported a 14.7% decline and Long Beach Airport saw a 6.7% drop.
Website Editor: This is another reminder of the financial disaster that El Toro Airport would have become and also why pre-9-11 thinking about demand for a California bullet train no longer applies.
JWA handles more passengers on fewer planes in August
Airline
passenger traffic at John Wayne Airport increased in August 2013 as
compared to August 2012. In August 2013, the Airport served 850,988
passengers,
an increase of 1.5% when compared to the August 2012.
Commercial
aircraft operations decreased 1.1%, while Commuter aircraft operations
decreased 23.9% when compared to the levels recorded in August 2012.
The
result is further evidence that the airport can serve more passengers
without a proportional increase in flight traffic and environmental
impacts.
September 30 - October 6, 2013
Airport-expansion foes question tourism spending - OC Register
Re-negotiation of John Wayne Airport traffic limits brings conflicts to surface.
The issue is particularly sensitive as the city looks to update the agreement governing jet noise and airport passenger levels, commonly called the settlement agreement. The agreement expires at the end of 2015, and an environmental review, now underway, is one of the first steps in the update process.
Nancy Alston of Air Fair said the group is “very, very concerned” that Visit Newport Beach, the nonprofit that spends local tax dollars to boost tourism, is working at cross-purposes with anti-expansion groups such as Air Fair.
Through a longstanding agreement, Visit Newport Beach spends 18 percent of hotel bed taxes to promote the city nationally and internationally.
Mexico travel doubles at John Wayne - OC Register
International passenger traffic at John Wayne Airport has more than doubled over last year and now makes up 4.3 percent of all Orange County commercial air travel, the airport reported.
In August, John Wayne's peak travel month, more than 264,000 passengers flew to and from Mexico, more than double the 115,600 in August 2012. The increase was helped in part by AirTran, which added a second daily flight to Cabo San Lucas in the summer.
A year ago in January, only about 5,600 passengers flew what was then the airport's one international flight a day on WestJet to Vancouver, British Columbia. International traffic jumped to just more than 30,000 passengers in January after AirTran and Interjet launched daily flights last year to Mexico City, Cabo San Lucas and Guadalajara. WestJet still has its one daily flight to Canada.
Long Beach Airport is still seeing passenger declines. About 293,000 passengers flew out of Long Beach in August, down 7.3 percent from the same month last year. Year to date, travel is down 8.7 percent. JetBlue, which has three out of four flights at the airport, has cut back on some service this year as the airline deploys aircraft to other markets.
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