Weighty Issue of Cargo Flights at John Wayne : Shipping: UPS wants an evening departure from the airport so it can pick up O.C. packages later and avoid its beat-the-clock drive to Long Beach.

You might say Joe Bennett lives on deadline.

Every afternoon, the United Parcel Service driver has to beat the clock as he pilots a bulky chocolate-brown van from the company’s hilltop processing center in Aliso Viejo to the Long Beach Airport. It’s the last chance for packages from Orange County to make an overnight delivery jet.

Traffic jams resulting from accidents, rain or sold-out concerts at the Irvine Meadows Amphitheatre can make Bennett horribly late. And every minute that the company’s delayed Boeing 757 freighter holds up its national distribution operation in Louisville, Ky., it costs the firm $2,000.

That is why UPS is so intent on beginning regular cargo jet service out of John Wayne Airport. Bennett’s 36-mile commute, along with the shipments of about 420 other UPS drivers in Orange County, would be shaved in half. Businesses that depend on overnight shipping, like those with a sizable mail-order operation, would be able to add at least a half hour to their business day for outgoing packages. That could be enough to determine whether a sale goes to them or to a competitor.

But including a single cargo plane among John Wayne’s 73-plane daily lineup is hardly as simple as it sounds. The Board of Supervisors would have to amend a 1985 agreement that effectively barred regularly scheduled, all-cargo flights. A passenger flight would most likely have to be bumped to make way for the freighter. And airport staff worries that adding cargo-only flights could set a troublesome precedent, displacing passengers for packages and opening the door to more cargo operations by existing airlines.

“There will be some weighty issues,” predicted John Wayne airport spokeswoman Courtney C. Wiercioch.

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Not weighty enough, however, to prevent UPS from trying to change the system. The company and its rival, Federal Express, each applied five years ago for permission to begin cargo flights. Traffic congestion gets worse every year, however, so the need for service at John Wayne is as great as ever, UPS maintains.

The latest information available shows that in 1991, only 2,500 tons of air freight moved through John Wayne, about 0.2% of the total volume in Southern California. Most of those were small shipments that were sent in the bellies of passenger airliners. In contrast, Los Angeles International Airport had 1.3 million tons, or 79.1% of the volume and tiny Long Beach Airport had more than 27,000 tons, or 1.7%, according to the Southern California Assn. of Governments.

The present system “doesn’t provide our customers with good pickup service,” said Oscar Jeffrion, district manager for the UPS region that covers Orange and San Diego counties. Final daily pickup times now vary from 2:30 to 5:30 p.m. in Orange County, based on proximity to the airport.

Now that UPS is at the top of the airport waiting list, it has decided to spend an estimated $100,000 to fulfill the requirement for an environmental impact study that will look at the implications of adding a single daily freight flight at John Wayne.

While such detailed reports are usually reserved for construction projects or sensitive environmental areas, UPS said it hopes that the report will allay fears about noise and shed light on several other issues. For instance, it will show whether a cargo flight would generate additional pollution by forcing scores of airline passengers who would have otherwise flown from Orange County to commute to flights at Long Beach or Los Angeles International airports.

Federal Express, meanwhile, has since lost interest in John Wayne and is pinning its hopes on the eventual commercialization of the 4,600-acre El Toro Marine Corps Air Station, due to be closed as early as 1997.

“I don’t think, regardless of what we do, we’re going to gain permission to fly out of John Wayne Airport,” said Gil Mook, a Federal Express vice president at the company’s headquarters in Memphis, Tenn. “The noise requirements and the local citizenry just won’t tolerate additional flights.”

UPS’ Jeffrion said that John Wayne is, “right now, the only airport available to us” for consideration in Orange County and “if El Toro became the primary airport . . . I’m sure we’ll be requesting a flight out of there instead of John Wayne.”

The County Board of Supervisors, which oversees the annual reallocation of flights every April, appears decidedly cool about allowing all-cargo flights.

“Legally, I have to say I’m open-minded. But emotionally, there has been a lot of effort on this but I have a commitment to move the people. . . . I’m a people person,” said veteran Supervisor Thomas F. Riley, whose district includes the airport.

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Supervisor Harriett M. Wieder, who chairs the board, said “there are so many questions to be answered” and that no conclusions are possible until the environmental report is received.

As with all airport disputes, noise will be one of the chief issues. UPS has muffled the debate somewhat by offering to only fly twin-engine 757s, which it maintains would be quieter than 86% of all other takeoffs--both commercial and private--at John Wayne. The assertion is based on tests conducted in 1989. Crews loaded up the plane with old tires and other junk to simulate the weight of regular package load. Even at full capacity, the plane was no more noisy than passenger-laden 757s at John Wayne, according to Landrum & Brown, a Lawrence, Kan., consulting agency that reviewed the results. Still, noise opponents remain suspicious of the UPS application.

“Our group does not like the idea of flying cargo. We think they should wait and fly out of El Toro,” said Barbara Lichman, executive director of the Airport Working Group of Orange County, one of the area’s most active anti-airport noise groups with 2,000 member families sprinkled throughout Newport Beach and surrounding areas. “If UPS gets in, every cargo airline in the world can get in once they have the right aircraft.”

Newport Beach Mayor Clarence J. Turner said the beachfront city “bargained for 8.4 million passengers” a year from John Wayne and to go beyond the agreement and allow cargo flights is to raise the prospect of additional jet noise. He said his city would perform a full review in the environmental report.

UPS is standing up to its anticipated opposition. It has organized its customers and business organizations into a lobbying force called the “Competitiveness Alliance of Orange County.” It includes six trade groups, nine area chambers of commerce and various business leaders.

The cargo flight ban, and resulting early package pickup times, “is like having a store that gets shut down three hours early,” said Laura MacLellan, vice president of Far East Bank in Newport Beach and chairwoman of the Export Trade Assn. Local businesses are put at a competitive disadvantage and “the last thing we need is fewer jobs,” MacLellan said.

The extra half hour gained from a later pickup time could make the difference in whether an asthmatic gets the medicine needed promptly or has to suffer for another day, said Michael A. Cohen, the pharmacy director for Homedco RespiMed in Costa Mesa.

Cohen’s pharmacy operation serves respiratory patients throughout the West. When Homedco receives a request for a prescription by phone, it has to call the doctor’s office to confirm it. Often, doctors don’t return their calls until late in the day, forcing Homedco into a last-minute rush to get the order out the door.

“The biggest problem we have is that the last pickup is 5 p.m.,” he said. “That extra half hour would make a big difference. Our priority is getting them the medicine so they can breath easier. . . . We’re not talking about a package of parts where they can wait another day. We’re talking about somebody’s health.”

Those companies that do actually ship various parts and equipment say they lose business to rivals because they don’t have the same late pickup times.

“We have a hard time with competitors in Long Beach and Los Angeles. They can get as much as an hour later pickup time which allows customers to place orders later,” said Peter Zomaya Jr., general manager of Memory Products and More in Irvine, which sells memory chips and modules for personal computers.

The “crunch time” for phone orders comes in the afternoon, he said, but the company has difficulty taking daily orders after 4 p.m. in order for them to make the UPS pickup.

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“There have been a lot of companies moving away from this area,” a trend that could continue “if they keep on putting these walls in front of us to stop us from getting the most business,” Zomaya warned.

If anyone knows “crunch time,” it’s UPS driver Joe Bennett, who has heard his share of complaints from companies when he can’t stick around on a late pickup. Bennett drives the “chase car,” UPS parlance for the last truck of the day. In that assignment, the muscular 22-year-old received a quick education in pressure commuting.

Bennett works from the company’s processing center in Laguna Hills, a sprawling facility that handles all packages in Orange County south of Costa Mesa. The remainder of the county is covered from another center in Anaheim.

Packages destined to other California locations are trucked to Ontario to meet a plane. But all eastbound freight is shipped through Long Beach, and that’s where Bennett comes in.

After a tractor-trailer truck hauls most of the packages, Bennett has to take care of the stragglers. Usually, it is because one of the delivery vans arrived late at the center laden with packages that need to go to the East overnight.

Hitting the highway at about 6:10 p.m., Bennett said he usually has only a vague inkling of what he will find. Sometimes what should be a breezy 30-minute commute becomes a 70-minute nightmare. The northbound San Diego Freeway, Bennett said, always stays clear through Costa Mesa. Then, after passing the Fairview Avenue exit, “I look over hill and that’s where I make or break any trip to Long Beach.”

Bennett has learned a few tricks. For instance, if he hears in advance that the freeway is jammed, he can grab another UPS worker to ride with him. The “car-pool dummy,” as the rider is called, allows Bennett to take the faster car pool lane as far as the San Gabriel River Freeway interchange.

Not surprising, Bennett is an enthusiastic fan of hauling cargo jet service at John Wayne Airport. It would remove the most time-consuming section of the daily commute, the section of freeway that lies past John Wayne Airport. Shorter commute times mean later pickups and happier customers.

“People are expecting later and later package pickups,” he laments.

Wing and a Prayer

Orange County generates about 30% of Southern California’s total air freight, even though it represents only about 16% of the regional population and about 18% of its jobs. But most of its air cargo is handled by other airports because of restrictions at John Wayne Airport.

* Volume Climbing

The total cargo load sent from regional airports increased almost 75% between 1979 and 1991. It is estimated to more than double between 1991 and 2010, but John Wayne will remain a minor player. Volume in tons:

* 1979: 0.92 1991: 1.59 2000: 2.75* 2010: 4.79* * Estimate

1991 2010 Airport Tons Percent Tons Percent LAX 1,258,209 79.1% 3,173,188 66.0% Ontario 282,558 17.8 1,294,200 27.0 Long Beach 27,437 1.7 167,767 3.5 Burbank 19,449 1.2 143,800 3.0 John Wayne* 2,511 0.2 14,380 0.3

* There are no cargo-only flights at John Wayne because of noise and weight restrictions. A small amount is transported in passenger flights. Where Air Freight Originates

Estimates based on analysis of the 10 biggest industrial users in the region: County Los Angeles: 60.0% Orange: 30.0 Ventura: 4.0 Riverside: 3.0 San Bernardino: 3.0 Why Cargo Is Trucked From Orange County There is no outright ban on all-cargo flights at John Wayne, but airport policies have effectively blocked such operations. The rules affecting cargo: * Passenger Preference: The Airport Authority requires that passengers be given preference over cargo when assigning slots in the flight lineup. * Noise: Most cargo firms, including UPS, use larger planes, such as the Boeing 757, in order to fly nonstop to Midwest sorting centers. The 757 meets noise standards but must compete with smaller, quieter planes when a slot becomes available. * Curfew: No takeoffs after 10 p.m. or landings after 11 p.m. Cargo preference is for later flights enabling late pickups. However, UPS is requesting a single 7 p.m. takeoff.

* Sources: Southern California Assn. of Governments, Times reports; Researched by JANICE L. JONES/Los Angeles Times