Continental Gets 3 Flights From Frontier

The Orange County Board of Supervisors Tuesday gave three of bankrupt Frontier Airlines’ daily flights from John Wayne Airport to Continental Airlines and authorized negotiations with Transtar Airlines Corp. for the remaining two flights.

Eight other airlines are waiting for permission to begin flights from John Wayne, an overcrowded facility that is due for major expansion. In the past, airlines wanting to use the airport have filed lawsuits, some of which have been successful, to gain access.

Continental, which already is allocated three flights a day from John Wayne, is owned by Texas Air Corp., the firm buying the operating assets of Frontier.

Airport Manager George A. Rebella said the assignment of flights formerly operated by Frontier resulted from negotiations with Continental. In the course of those negotiations, he indicated that Continental agreed with airport policy that does not allow one carrier to automatically take over the airport slots of an airline it is buying out.

The supervisors have limited the number of flights from John Wayne and have held the number of regularly scheduled commercial airlines allowed to use the county-owned airport to nine.