Air Traffic Record Foreseen at John Wayne Over Holiday

PSA has some good news for its customers at John Wayne Airport: Restrooms have been added to the airline’s passenger facilities, which are housed in a temporary building that resembles a trailer next to the main terminal.

Now the bad news: The restrooms won’t be functional until next week, after what officials at several airlines say may be a record-setting Thanksgiving weekend for passenger boardings at John Wayne and other airports nationwide.

“We may set a traffic record (Wednesday), and we may eclipse that on Sunday,” said Jack Keady, marketing manager for American Airlines. “About 80% of our seats are already sold systemwide. Driving this fact is that many of our fares carry penalties of up to 50% for cancellations, so bookings are firmer this year than they were last year, when we didn’t have such penalties.”

Airline officials are strongly urging travelers to get to John Wayne Airport at least an hour ahead of time. They said Tuesday that they did not have specific projections for boardings at John Wayne but added that everything indicates passenger volumes will be greater than last year’s.

“Our afternoon flight just left here, and it was full,” said Tom Newcomb, Continental Airlines’ general manager at John Wayne Airport. “But we’re heavy all the time anyway, so it seems no more congested here than normal so far today. Our bookings are completely full, both in and out of Orange County. We’re selling on a stand-by basis.”

Continental recently took over Frontier Airlines and received permission from the Orange County Board of Supervisors to add two flights daily from John Wayne to Houston and a fourth to Denver, but not until Dec. 1.

PSA spokeswoman Margery Craig said that today is expected to be the best day of the year for the airline and may set a boarding record at John Wayne and other airports.

“Part of the reason,” she said, “is we served 10 fewer cities at this time last year.”

Craig said PSA is adding a fifth flight from John Wayne to Oakland today and Sunday, and a sixth to San Jose. A 10th flight to San Francisco will be added on Sunday only.

Bill Bell, spokesman for John Wayne-based AirCal, said Tuesday that the airline does not divulge specific booking information but added:

“We’re looking for an extremely good weekend. Our bookings are extremely strong. Wednesday and Sunday are the two strongest days of the year, and we’re probably going to have one of the best Thanksgiving weekends we’ve ever had. . . . We haven’t added extra people, but all of our personnel will be on duty.

“The biggest restraint we have is ground congestion. There will be an awful lot of cars, with people meeting incoming passengers as well as those delivering departing passengers. We certainly encourage them to get to the airport in plenty of time.”

Traffic Still ‘Manageable’

Denis R. Horn, chief of facilities and airport operations at John Wayne, said Tuesday that passenger levels are up over last year “overall,” but that the airport’s own peak-hour regulations keep traffic “manageable.”

The airport allows a maximum of 12 airline departures an hour, a level that normally is reached only between 7 and 8 a.m., the first hour of the day during which jets are permitted to operate under airport noise-abatement regulations.

“It can’t get any worse than our normal peak hour,” Horn said of the airline congestion. “We’re approaching it but not hitting it in the second hour (8 to 9 a.m.). Maybe we’ll hit it over this holiday weekend.”

Although parking is expected to be a problem, Continental’s Newcomb said it should be no worse than an average weekday, when the main parking lot in front of the terminal fills up and some travelers must use the airport’s auxiliary lot north of the San Diego Freeway, which has shuttle bus service.