JWA Sees Passenger Traffic Dip in November - OC Business Journal
John Wayne Airport saw passenger traffic fall 1.6% in November from a year earlier to 739,031.
The decline came from dips in both domestic and international travel, an airport spokeswoman said. International traffic was off about 16% to 25,334, while domestic was down 1% to 713,697.
Overall passenger traffic is still up 4% year-to-date.
December 16 - December 22, 2013
Passenger tallies spiral at Bob Hope Airport - Burbank Leader
Official says decline of travelers using Oakland Airport has effect on Burbank facility.
The number of passengers traveling through Bob Hope Airport dropped by almost 8.6% in October compared to a year earlier, continuing a downward spiral that's plagued the airfield the prior four months and most of the year.
So far this year, the airport has handled almost 3.19 million passengers, an almost 5.7% slide from a little more than 3.38 million the same period last year.
Denis Carvill, the airport's director of contractors and properties, said passenger declines at Oakland Airport are affecting Bob Hope Airport.
"Oakland is, by far, our largest market out of here," Carvill said, citing a recent article that stated Oakland has seen a 30% drop in passengers since 2007.
He added that 18.6% of the local airfield's passengers travel to Oakland.
Parking revenues continue to perform better than passenger tallies at Bob Hope Airport, coming in at almost $1.6 million and only $362 shy of what was budgeted. That translates into a 0.5% dip from a little more than $1.6 million in October 2012.
Looking at the number of passengers at other airports in the region, the changes varied widely. There were increases of 6.2% and 1.9% at LAX and John Wayne Airport, respectively. However, Ontario International Airport saw its number of passengers drop by 9% and Long Beach Airport reported a 7.4% decline.
Want Hawaii, D.C. flights from O.C.? So does JWA - OC Register
John Wayne Airport, hungry for flights to Mexico and new direct service to Hawaii and the Washington, D.C., area, is offering more than $1.3 million of incentives to attract airlines to those and other destinations.
The Orange County Board of Supervisors, which oversees John Wayne, on Tuesday unanimously approved a package ranging from $40,000 to $300,000 in rent incentives for airlines.
The supervisors approved a $300,000 direct-flight terminal rent incentive for an airline to provide service to one of the three airports in the Washington area – Baltimore Washington International Airport, Dulles International Airport, or Reagan Washington National Airport. The flight must be at least five days a week for 12 months, beginning next year.
The incentive package also offers $50,000 for an airline to provide one flight to Hawaii two days per week for at least nine months during 2014. Orange County has not had a direct flight to Hawaii since Aloha Airlines went bankrupt in March 2008.
The package also includes $900,000 in terminal rent credits for Southwest Airlines and AirTran to continue to provide flights to Mexico, which began last year. John Wayne applied last month to be designated a port of entry, which would require the federal government to pay the cost of customs. Until that happens, airport officials argued, they needed to continue the $300,000 for rent credits for the Mexico City, Cabo San Lucas and Guadalajara flights to be competitive with airports like Los Angeles International and Ontario International.
San Diego offers more nonstops
Southwest Airlines is offering San Diego Customers daily nonstop service to New Orleans International Airport beginning April 8, 2014; and daily nonstop service to Orlando International Airport, Portland International Airport, and Seattle Tacoma International Airport beginning June 8, 2014.
"We are pleased to offer these new service options for our San Diego Customers," said Andrew Watterson, Southwest Airlines Vice President Network Planning and Performance. "San Diego is an extremely important market to Southwest Airlines, and we believe the addition of these new nonstop destinations demonstrates our commitment to the San Diego community."
December 9 - December 15, 2013
Southwest Air to bid aggressively for Reagan National slots - Reuters
Southwest Airlines Co plans to bid aggressively for takeoff and landing rights at Reagan National Airport near Washington, as it looks to bring more competition to the nation's capital, a senior company executive said.
The slots are coming up for sale as American Airlines Group Inc makes divestitures required under a settlement with the U.S. Department of Justice that allowed AMR and US Airways to merge.
"We are very interested in picking up as many DCA (Reagan National) slots as we can," Robert Jordan, Southwest's executive vice president and chief commercial officer, said.
American and US Airways agreed to give up 104 takeoff and landing slots, or 52 pairs, at Reagan National and LaGuardia airports, along with gates at airports in Chicago, Boston, Los Angeles, Miami and Dallas.
Last week, Southwest agreed to buy 22 of the 34 slots at New York's LaGuardia Airport that American and US Airways are giving up under the Justice Department settlement.
Website Editor: Hopefully this will enable OC residents to fly a wished-for non-stop route from John Wayne to Washington.
December 2 - December 8, 2013
Great Park - OC Register
Things have not gone according to plan, but there have been lots of plans. Starting in the mid-1990's, the county, then Irvine and finally the developer, FivePoint Communities, have in total revealed more than a dozen plans for reusing El Toro Marine Corps Air Station.
Park space dwindled to make the property attractive to developers needing to recoup a $1 billion investment.
In 2005, Irvine solicited park designs and chose a striking plan by Ken Smith. After several revisions, the price tag hit $1.4 billion. The city was more that 1 billion short.
The Register article shows several of the evolving plans and this website adds the following links from documents that we have archived.
One
of the County’s grandiose early concepts for El Toro was the
“Global Gateway.” See http://www.eltoroairport.org/news/airport_plan-82398.html
This
website archived ETRPA’s website
when it went offline and has a map of the 1998 Millennium Plan at http://www.eltoroairport.org/etrpa/millennium-3.html
We
also saved parts of the County’s pro-airport website when
it was ordered shut down by a court as an improper use of public funds
during
the Measure W campaign. In a failed attempt to weaken anti-airport
opposition,
county officials proposed a “Green Plan” or “Airport in a Park.”
This
curious effort can be seen at http://www.eltoroairport.org/images/green-large.gif
A
2001 Irvine concept map is at http://www.eltoroairport.org/elections/park.html
Ontario, LA agree to suspend airport lawsuit - Press-Enterprise
Ontario’s lawsuit to regain control of Ontario International Airport from Los Angeles and Los Angeles World Airports was placed on temporary hold Thursday, Dec. 5, to allow the cities to try to settle the matter out of court.
In Riverside County Superior Court on Thursday morning, Los Angeles’ lawyer Steven S. Rosenthal told Judge Gloria Connor Trask that the parties had agreed late Wednesday to stay the lawsuit until Jan. 31 while they try to reach a resolution.
Ontario has been seeking local control of the Inland airport since 2010, after several years of declining passenger numbers.
Representatives of the two cities had been negotiating the fate of the airport for months, but the talks stalled last summer. Ontario filed the lawsuit alleging breach of contract and breach of fiduciary duty in July.
Then-LA Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa later offered to resume negotiations, but only if Ontario would drop the lawsuit. Ontario declined.
Under new Mayor Eric Garcetti, relations apparently have thawed, providing an opening for talks to resume. Soon after taking office June 30, Garcetti replaced all but one of the LA Board of Airport Commissioners. He retained Los Angeles World Airports Executive Director Gina Marie Lindsey, who has opposed returning the Inland airport to Ontario.
If no settlement is reached, the case will be back in court Feb. 5.
Travelers say Palm Springs' airport has its own place in the sun - LA Times
The number of passengers using Palm Springs International Airport in the last decade has grown 55.5%, with many travelers favoring it over bigger, more congested hubs.
A steady stream of visitors from around the globe who have helped turn this former military base into one of the fastest-growing commercial airports in the West and an increasingly popular alternative to Southern California's larger, more congested aviation hubs.
Last year alone, the passenger count jumped more than 14% to almost 1.73 million, a blistering pace by industry standards. And, if Federal Aviation Administration projections prove accurate, Palm Springs will have an additional 1 million passengers by 2030.
The rapid growth stands in contrast to far busier commercial airports in Arizona, Nevada and Southern California, including Los Angeles International, that have struggled to expand during years of economic head winds. LA/Ontario International Airport — an hour's drive west of Palm Springs — has lost more than a third of its passengers and a large chunk of its flight schedule since 2007.
Though tiny compared with LAX, the airport's courtyard and terminals offer upscale shops, eateries and a show business-themed restaurant.
Ground transportation and parking — the latter at $12 a day compared with up to $30 at LAX — are steps from the main concourse. Clearing the security checkpoints typically takes only a few minutes.
Travelers come from 500 cities worldwide, according to the airport, and 10 air carriers now serve 21 urban areas across the United States and Canada, which has become Palm Springs International's fastest-growing market.
"It's a fantastic airport to operate out of," said Robert Palmer, a spokesman for WestJet, a low-cost Canadian airline based in Calgary that has steadily added service to Palm Springs. "It's tremendously convenient for our customers."
Like other cities with flight paths over residential neighborhoods, Palm Springs has had to deal with noise complaints over the years. But it has handled them without resorting to the kind of flight and passenger caps that have been imposed on Long Beach Airport and John Wayne Airport in Orange County. More than a decade ago, after citizens complained, the airport embarked on a multimillion-dollar effort to provide sound insulation for homes and other noise abatement measures.
Travelers like Palm Springs International's selection of low-cost, nonstop flights, which aren't available elsewhere in the region, most notably at LA/Ontario, the next closest airport. Palm Springs offers 50% more direct flights to cities than Ontario.
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