Airport Allows Overnight Parking of Continental Jet

In a move to prevent canceled flights affecting thousands of passengers with Continental Airlines tickets between Orange County and Denver, the airline late Thursday reached a temporary agreement with John Wayne Airport officials that will allow it to keep an extra jet parked overnight at the congested facility.

Without the agreement, an estimated 185 to 200 passengers with tickets today, and many of the 6,000 booked between now and March 31, could have faced cancellation or rescheduling because of the county’s refusal to allow Continental to park at John Wayne overnight--at a time when the airport has reached its limit on overnight jet parking.

The temporary settlement was forged after Continental tried to obtain a temporary restraining order to protect a private lease contract the airline signed with UCO Air to lease an overnight space in an area that is away from the commercial jet ramp and normally reserved for private airplanes.

At issue is an airport regulation, designed to minimize congestion at the crowded facility, which places a limit of 13 on the number of jets that may remain at the airport overnight.

Airport-Wide Application

All 13 slots are taken, and Continental had signed the contract with UCO Air for one of its overnight spaces. The county, however, claimed that the 13-slot limit applies to commercial jets anywhere on the airport, including areas leased by the county to such private firms as UCO Air.

Continental booked the 6,000 tickets beginning in early January, allegedly after informing the county of its plans to park at UCO and hearing no objection.

While airline officials said thousands of ticket-holders could potentially have been affected if no plane were allowed to remain overnight, county officials say only about a fourth of them--those making the second of two flights from Denver to Orange County in the evening--would have faced cancellation.

Under the agreement, the county will find temporary parking facilities for Continental’s extra jet while the airline attempts to find a way to ferry in a plane to Orange County in the early morning hours to service its new Denver route.

The county recently made a similar agreement with Western Airlines, which is launching two new daily flights to Salt Lake City. Both airlines now have until Feb. 14 to adjust their schedules or find other ways to serve their passengers, though attorneys for Continental said they are not ruling out a court fight later to determine whether the county has the right to prevent airport businesses from leasing space to airlines.