John Wayne Airport Plan OKd : Supervisors Vote for More Flights, Larger Terminal

After years of political debate, the Orange County Board of Supervisors agreed unanimously Wednesday to a major expansion plan for John Wayne Airport, voting to raise the ceiling on daily jet departures to 55 and to enlarge the passenger terminal to handle as many as 4.1 million passengers a year.

The facility now limits daily departures to 41 and serves about 2.8 million passengers annually. The plan would enlarge the terminal from 29,000 to 250,000 square feet, at a cost of about $150 million. No financing package for the enlargement has been approved by the board.

The vote was a partial victory for residents of Newport Beach, many of whom live under the airport flight path and have persistently opposed more flights out of the facility.

Concerned about noise and surface traffic congestion around the airport, Newport Beach residents mounted an intense lobbying campaign and won a postponement of consideration of an even more ambitious expansion plan.

They persuaded board members to delay until 1990 a decision on further expansion, including a proposal for a much larger terminal that would serve 10.24 million passengers a year.

Board Chairman Thomas F. Riley, who represents Newport Beach, said after the vote, “Some of my prayers have been answered.”

Daily departures have been limited to 41 by a court order ruling that an 1981 expansion plan lacked an adequate environmental impact analysis. Supervisors said they are convinced that environmental impact studies accompanying the new plan will withstand legal challenges.

Newport Beach officials failed to win a commitment from supervisors to find a site and start work on a new medium-size airport to ease the burden at John Wayne.

Instead, the board directed county airport commissioners to review previous studies and recommend a new location, if warranted, by Nov. 30. Twice in previous years board members adopted resolutions declaring that there are no suitable sites in Orange County for a new regional airport.

In a related action, supervisors voted Wednesday to allow America West Airlines, Continental Airlines and Jet America Airlines to begin operations at John Wayne, giving each two daily flights beginning April 1. That brings to nine the number of air carriers at the facility, which was designed to serve 400,000 passengers a year.