Vote on Airport Access Plan Put in Holding Pattern Until May 3
A vote on a new airline access plan for the county’s John Wayne Airport has been pushed back more than a month, to May 3, to enable the Federal Aviation Administration to review the complex proposal, airport officials said Monday.
Initially, the plan was to have been voted on Wednesday by county supervisors.
But the FAA’s request for a review of the written proposal means that the airport staff recommendations will not be issued publicly until April 6, said Jan Mittermeier, assistant airport manager.
Once made public, the plan must be reviewed by nearly two dozen commercial jet, commuter and cargo airlines, as well as by city officials and citizen groups in Newport Beach, Tustin and Costa Mesa.
The Airport Commission plans to make its recommendation April 19. The plan is tentatively scheduled for a May 3 hearing before the Board of Supervisors, Mittermeier said.
Part of the access plan deals with the number of flights each airline gets under the court-imposed noise-control program that now limits the daily average of passenger jet departures at John Wayne Airport to 96. The total could climb to 160 under the new plan.
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