New Terminal May Boost Use of Airport by 77%, Report Says

John Wayne Airport administrators on Friday made public a planning report that envisions a 77% increase in passengers almost immediately after the airport’s new terminal opens in April, 1990.

The report also projects a 33% increase in noise-regulated flights and a number of new flights by jets so quiet they do not fall within the noise-regulated category. Noise-regulated flights are those subject to special takeoff restrictions because the planes are so loud.

Airport manager George Rebella said in an interview, however, that the increase in flights and passenger totals in 1990 will not add to noise problems around the airport. That, he said, is largely because of new technology, including quieter jets.

The airport’s new planning report is called “Phase 2 Access Plan.” It examines issues and problems that will face the airport beginning April 1, 1990, when the new terminal is supposed to open. At the same time, the airport will be entitled to increase the number of passengers it handles annually from 4.75 million to 8.4 million.

Rebella predicted the passenger increase will occur within a very short time after the opening of the new terminal. “It could occur almost overnight,” he said.

The airport received permission in late 1985, under the terms of a settlement in a federal lawsuit, to increase yearly passenger totals and add more noise-regulated flights after the new terminal opens. That was when U.S. District Judge Terry Hatter Jr. signed an agreement between Orange County and Newport Beach settling a long court battle over the airport.

In addition to allowing more passengers to use the airport, the settlement provides that John Wayne will be allowed to have up to 73 noise-regulated flights a day after April 1, 1990. An average of only 55 noise-regulated flights a day is allowed now.

Because these numbers date back to the 1985 settlement, Rebella noted, the information in Friday’s report on passenger and flight totals was not unexpected. What is new, he said, is a plan to phase in the bigger volume at the airport when the new terminal opens next year.

The report made public on Friday is essentially an outline that poses growth problems and possible ways to solve them. It makes no specific recommendations.

“We will be soliciting comments from the airlines and other airport users about this plan, and we will come back with staff recommendations in a second report to be issued by March 15,” Rebella said.

Friday’s report raised several questions about airport operations after the new terminal opens:

- How should the increased number of daily flights be divided among the airlines?

- Should all-cargo-carrying air companies be allowed to compete for some of the daily flights out of John Wayne? Now, the airport has no regularly scheduled all-cargo air carriers.

- Should more passenger airlines be allowed to fly from John Wayne?

- How many passenger planes should be allowed to remain overnight at the airport? The airport now allows no more than 13 passenger planes to remain overnight at the field because of space and environmental restrictions.

- Shall there continue to be limits on the number of flights at peak hours, such as between 7 a.m. and 8 a.m.? The airport now allows no more than 12 departures per peak hour.

Rebella said the March report will include airport staff recommendations on these and other questions.