New Jet Meets John Wayne Noise Limit

Just 10 days after the Orange County Board of Supervisors adopted an incentive plan to reward airlines for using quieter jets at John Wayne Airport, AirCal tentatively qualified for an increase in its daily departures after its new “quiet” Boeing 737 met stricter takeoff noise standards Saturday.

After repeated tries at higher weights, the new jet met the 89.5-decibel standard with a reduced load of about 100 passengers, or 40 less than capacity.

“It looks as if they’re going to come in at a ‘Double A’ rating at about 100,000 pounds (about 70% capacity),” said William Martin, the county’s senior airport noise control expert after a day of monitoring the new jet’s takeoffs at various weight loads.

Test results for the Boeing 737-300 will be made official early this week, after the county computes the results and receives confirmation from the Federal Aviation Administration, Martin said. An FAA official was aboard each flight to monitor the performance of plane and pilot.

William Lyon, chairman of Newport Beach-based AirCal, who watched as the 737 went through its paces at John Wayne on Saturday, said that he and other airline officials were satisfied with the plane’s noise performance, although it would limit the passengers on each flight.

In fact, Lyon was so pleased Saturday that he said he expects to eventually replace all of AirCal’s McDonnell Douglas DC-9 Super 80s with the new $25-million Boeings.

Lyon said he hopes to get the supervisors’ approval to use the planes by April 1, the earliest scheduled date for the added departures. He added that the airline will try to persuade the supervisors to approve the aircraft’s use at the board’s Feb. 19 meeting.

Such approval could lead to an average of three more daily departures for AirCal--the most allowable under the board’s new Airport Master Plan that increases the daily takeoff limit from 41 to 55, some of which must be under the new noise standard of 89.5 decibels.

Under a complicated bonus formula, the board provided that each airline could trade in some of its regular flights on a 2-for-1 basis by using the new, quieter jets, up to a maximum of three for each carrier during the first year, and a total of 16 flights daily.

AirCal, which now has an average of 12 1/2 daily departures from John Wayne, could then qualify for up to an average of 15 1/2 daily flights by using the new 737-300s, the latest entry in the competitive “quiet” jet market.

On Thursday, rival carrier PSA will test its new quiet jet--the British Aerospace BAe-146, in hopes that it will meet the new noise standard and also qualify for bonus flights. PSA, optimistic of the results, has ordered 20 of the new planes.

But even with the reduced-capacity restriction, Lyon said AirCal was happy to get the new jets qualified, with the intention of using them on AirCal’s Orange County-San Francisco flight, the airline’s milk run.

Lyon denied that the seat reduction would be an economic handicap because the 100-passenger figure is the average number of seats AirCal fills on its Bay Area runs.

Of the three possible new flights daily, AirCal spokesman William Bell said no decision has been made on destinations. However, adding new flights to the Bay Area “would certainly be a top priority to strengthen existing service,” he said. The new 737, which uses a modified engine to reduce noise, is already in use at other airports.

At John Wayne, access to the airport has been limited to smaller aircraft such as the 737 and the McDonnell Douglas DC-9 Super 80 because larger aircraft are too heavy for the 5,700-foot runway. Under John Wayne’s aircraft weight limit, which is based on a combination of factors, including runway length and ability to bear weight, planes are limited as to fuel and passenger loads. At present, the restrictions mean shorter flights--at 1,204 miles, Dallas-Ft. Worth is the most distant destination.

During the tests of the new AirCal 737, which were conducted Friday and Saturday, the new jet’s weight was closely monitored. The 100,000-pound payload for which the plane tentatively qualified includes passengers, crew, fuel and luggage, Bell said.

AirCal asked its employees to volunteer Saturday to ride the jetliner, which took off seven times and circled and landed at John Wayne. The plane had two takeoffs Friday with a planeload of VIPs aboard, Bell said.

The county used a complex monitoring system with nine listening and recording devices.

The community and its adjacent neighbor, Newport Beach, is where residents have mounted an anti-noise campaign.

On the first run, the three monitors reported decibel readings of 90.6, 92.3 and 91.7.

Industry experts said this is Boeing Co.’s chance to make a return to John Wayne with the new plane, challenging the DC-9 Super 80’s virtual lock on airports like Orange County, which have strict noise standards.