O.C. Protest Letters Unlikely to Restore Flights--American

American Airlines said Friday it has decided to drop all of its daily nonstop flights from John Wayne Airport to Sacramento because the route is one of the least profitable in the carrier’s entire system.

Joseph J. D’Ambrosio, western regional vice president for American, which is based in Dallas, said letters of protest mailed by the county’s seven state Assembly members and four state senators are not likely to change the situation.

Even the possibility of a political attack by state Sen. William Campbell (R-Hacienda Heights), a member of the Senate Select Committee on Tourism and Aviation, has not swayed American.

The carrier is waiting, as are other airlines serving the county, for the unveiling of a long-delayed access plan that will spell out just how many flights it will be allotted at John Wayne over the next decade. The facility is the nation’s most tightly controlled commercial airport because of noise abatement rules imposed to settle a lawsuit brought by Newport Beach.

An aide to Campbell said the senator will probably try to pressure American both in the Legislature and before the County Board of Supervisors, which must approve the flight allocation plan.

No Outcry

But aides to several county supervisors said there has been no public outcry over the decision to cancel the Sacramento flights, so there is likely to be little political pressure brought to bear on American to change its position in return for favorable treatment in the access plan.

The decision to pull the plug on the route, D’Ambrosio said, was based on economics: the collapse of Eastern Airlines has opened up the lucrative Miami market, and in order to begin serving it, American needed to pull several aircraft out of their current assignments.

“We looked at the whole system,” he said, “and Orange County-Sacramento showed up as one of the least profitable routes we have, so we canceled those flights.”

He said that although the early morning flight so popular with the county’s legislators was generally more than half-filled, all five flights together filled an average of only 40% of the available seats. “Growth in that market just hasn’t materialized for us,” he said.

“We have had indications from legislators who use that route that they aren’t pleased,” he said, “but we have to look to profitability for our stockholders.”

Connecting Flights

American might be willing to reconsider the cancellations if “the legislators can help us increase the profitability of that route,” D’Ambrosio said, “but most of the time legislators want discounted fares, not higher ones.”

After June 30, American, which now operates five nonstop flights--including one on weekdays that leaves Orange County at 6:57 a.m. and arrives in Sacramento at 8:26--will offer only connecting flights through its San Jose hub. Its early morning flight, then, will leave Orange County at 6:54 a.m. but will not arrive in Sacramento until 10:42--almost 4 hours later.

The only other nonstop service from Orange County to Sacramento is offered by USAir, and the earliest of its four daily flights does not arrive in Sacramento until 10:03 a.m.

American, however, does fly to Sacramento nonstop from Ontario, and United Express, the United Airlines commuter affiliate, flies to Sacramento nonstop from Long Beach. Both offer flights that arrive in the capital before 9 a.m.

Campbell sent a letter to American Thursday reminding the carrier of its 1987 promise not to disrupt commuter service within California as it completed its acquisition of AirCal, the Newport Beach carrier whose flight allocations at John Wayne Airport enabled American to become the dominant carrier in the county.

But D’Ambrosio said he does not see canceling the Sacramento flights as a significant disruption.

American’s position, spokesman Al Becker said, is that “we have expanded throughout California and the entire West Coast” as a result of the acquisition of AirCal “and we never said we would not make schedule adjustments in given markets from time to time, as we are doing here.”

Because one plane is used to fly several flights a day, American had to cancel all of the Sacramento flights in order to free one of its jets for Miami. The flight cancellations mean that, until August, American will fly fewer than the 63 daily flights it is permitted to fly from John Wayne Airport. The carrier will then add a Boeing 757 to its county-based fleet, D’Ambrosio said.

That jet, he said, will be used to add another Orange County-Chicago route. American will continue to add planes to its local fleet, he said, with the ultimate goal of being able to fly from Orange County into hub airports in Nashville, Tenn., or Raleigh, N.C.