America West Now Airport’s Busiest Airline : Transportation: Carrier receives authorization for 3 more flights a day at John Wayne, for a total of 23.
America West became the busiest airline at John Wayne Airport after the reallocation Tuesday of landing slots as Orange County’s principal airport resolved what to do with 13 1/2 flights vacated by USAir and Midway, which left the airport last summer.
America West received authorization to operate three more flights a day, for a total of 23.
American Airlines, which had been the leading carrier with 21 departures, did not request any additional departures and is now the second-busiest operator at John Wayne.
United Airlines, with 14 flights, got 3 1/2 more--or seven flights every two days--so it remains the third-busiest carrier at the airport.
The 13 1/2 authorizations for flights are good until March, 1993, when the airport will again redistribute the allocation, possibly for another year and possibly until 2005, which is when most of the other authorizations expire for the airport’s eight airlines.
The airport has an average of 94 flights a day under a noise-abatement agreement with the city of Newport Beach. Those flights are in three classes: “A,” the 39 daily departures by the noisiest airplanes; “AA,” 34 departures by quieter planes; and “E,” the 21 quietest flights.
The flights allocated Tuesday cover only the “A” and “AA” categories, where the numbers of flights don’t change. The number of flights in the “E” category fluctuate under the complicated noise-abatement agreement with Newport Beach. Only United and America West have “E” flights.
Allocations for the five other airlines are:
Alaska Airlines, three more flights for a total of six.
Continental Airlines, one more for a total of eight.
Delta, one more for a total of eight.
TWA, with three flights daily, and Northwest, with 5 1/2, asked for no new flights.
The airport reserved two flights a day for a potential new carrier called Sierra Pacific, which has said it would like to fly to Salt Lake City twice a day from Orange County.
That carrier, however, does not yet have federal authorization to fly out of John Wayne Airport.
Average Daily Departures
John Wayne has reallocated 13 1/2 flights through March 31, 1993. Orange County’s airport is the fourth busiest in Southern California behind Los Angeles International, San Diego and Ontario.
Avg. Daily No. of Airport Departures Gates Los Angeles International 900 122 Lindbergh Field 290 31 Ontario 160 19 John Wayne *94 14
* Includes the 13 1/2 spaces that were allocated Tuesday.
Source: Airports listed
Researched by DALLAS M. JACKSON / Los Angeles Times
