John Wayne Airport Creates New Security Zones

Using color-coded badges and vehicle stickers, officials at John Wayne Airport are implementing a new security-identification system for airline and airport employees.

Two security zones at the airport are being created: one for general aviation and another, more secure zone for commercial airlines. Unlike the past, most security-cleared employees will not be allowed to move between the two areas.

In addition, said Jan Mittermeier, assistant airport manager, a computer-controlled card system is being installed on all doors and gates leading to secure areas--a system much like the one called for by the Federal Aviation Administration. Both the card-access system and the security-zone measure should be in place by December.

Although the FAA must approve any changes in airport security procedures, Mittermeier said she expects that such approval will come easily.

“We’ve been in conversations with the FAA all along, discussing and proposing things,” she said of the zone designation. “It is something that we’ve worked with them right along to develop.”

Under the security-zone system, Mittermeier said, the airline portion of the airport will be designated a “most critical” zone in terms of security. The general aviation portion of the airport, for private aircraft, will be designated a “less critical” zone.

Airline employees and vehicles, as well as airport employees who work in the air-carrier zone, will be issued badges or stickers of a certain color. Employees and vehicles in the general aviation zone will be issued badges or stickers of another color. The colored tags, Mittermeier said, “will just give security personnel ready identification as to whether that person should be on the air-carrier ramp” or the general aviation area.

Employees and vehicles cleared for access to one zone will not be allowed into the other. Until now, because there has been no differentiation between the airport’s secure areas, those with security clearances have been able to move between the air-carrier and general aviation areas.

According to Mittermeier, a third group of employees and vehicles will be cleared for access to both zones. These include fuel trucks, sheriff’s personnel and vehicles, and some airport maintenance and operations employees.

Scott Raphael, a Newport Beach attorney affiliated with the Orange County Airport Assn., which represents private pilots and aircraft service companies, said the security-zone measure is “a good start” toward increasing airline security. His organization supports the measure “as long as we aren’t restricted in access to those areas to which we are entitled.” Raphael and others from the organization were briefed by airport officials on the new procedures, and he said he doesn’t believe that rightful access will be restricted.

“We’re just grateful the airport has included us in this process,” he said.

Along with the security-zone measure, the airport is implementing a computer-controlled card system for secured doors and gates that is “almost complete,” Mittermeier said. The system is similar to one proposed by the FAA in March for 269 airports around the country, including John Wayne.

Fred Farrar, an FAA spokesman, said from Washington that it wasn’t clear whether the proposed card-access rule would actually become an agency regulation. Until it does, he said, airports are not required to install the computer-controlled systems.