Aircraft Workers Criticize Airport Plan

Nearly 250 people, most of them workers for McDonnell Douglas Corp., filled a meeting room to overflowing Friday night to protest a proposed compromise over expansion of John Wayne Airport.

In testimony before the Airport Commission in the county Hall of Administration, dozens of McDonnell workers contended that the proposed agreement, intended to end years of lawsuits involving the airport, contained “arbitrary and restrictive” conditions that would severely damage the aircraft manufacturer.

“We want to be in the same situation as our competitors,” said Bob Berghoff, president of the United Auto Workers local that represents workers at the plant in Long Beach where the company’s MD-Super 80 passenger jet is built.

Under the proposed airport agreement between the county and the City of Newport Beach, airlines using the MD-80 and similar planes would be limited to 39 flights per day. More flights would be allowed if the airlines used quieter jets, such as Boeing’s 737-300 and British Aerospace’s BAe-146.

Fear Loss of Contracts

Berghoff said the compromise could cause the company to lose contracts for some or all of the 200 planes it is trying to sell to seven airlines.

“You’re talking three years of work for 8,000 people,” Berghoff told the commissioners. The Airport Commission, whose members are appointed by the five county supervisors, recommends action to the supervisors, who are free to accept or reject the suggestions.

However, Michael Gatzke, the county’s airport special counsel, warned the commission that if it gives in to the McDonnell Douglas workers’ demands, Newport Beach and two homeowners groups involved in the settlement would back out of the proposed agreement.

“There are concessions that have been made, I believe, by all the parties to this agreement,” Gatzke said, and to modify any part of it now would doom it.

An attorney representing McDonnell Douglas, Ray Ikola, said, meanwhile, that if the agreement is concluded next week when the supervisors are scheduled to take final action on it, the company will continue its federal lawsuit charging the county with discriminating against McDonnell.

American Backs Position

An attorney for American Airlines, which uses the MD-80 airplane at John Wayne, supported the McDonnell Douglas position and said American Airlines would also continue its suit against the county for limiting use of the aircraft.

McDonnell Douglas, which has a separate suit against the county over the issue, contends that the agreement should allow 55 daily flights by aircraft of the MD-80 category and 73 by that type plane from 1990 on, or else the firm will suffer competitively.

Under the compromise, the county would put a ceiling on the number of passengers to use the airport in future years. But the proposal would allow some expansion of the airport--more than the City of Newport Beach and two homeowners’ groups originally wanted.

The main constraint on the airport in future years would be the number of people who could use it.