Southwest to Drop 7 Flights From John Wayne : Airlines: Decision will affect service to Phoenix, Salt Lake City and San Jose. America West will add five flights.

Southwest Airlines said Tuesday that it is dropping its service from Orange County to Phoenix and reducing service to Salt Lake City and San Jose on daily round-trip flights because John Wayne Airport officials have cut its flight allocation.

America West Airlines, meanwhile, said its allocation has been increased by five flights.

Southwest said it will halt four daily flights to Phoenix, two to Salt Lake City and one to San Jose starting April 1 because of a change in flight allocations. The airline will have 14 daily flights at John Wayne, down from 21 now.

America West Airlines said it will add a daily flight to Phoenix and two each to Las Vegas and Sacramento starting May 1 because of the allocation process. The five additional flights will give American West 21 daily departures.

Southwest started service to Phoenix on Jan. 15 with fares as low as $39 each way. The service was touted by the airline as a welcome relief for passengers accustomed to paying as much as $183 to travel with rival America West, the dominant carrier on the route now, with six daily flights.

Spokesman Mike Mitchell said the airline has been matching Southwest’s fares. He said he not sure whether prices will rise when Southwest discontinues service on the route.

“This is extremely unfortunate,” said Southwest spokeswoman Ginger Hardage. “This is not at all typical of Southwest Airlines. But it is a result of the reallocation process.”

Every year, the airport shifts allocations between airlines based on a complicated formula intended to reduce airport noise under the settlement agreement of a 1985 lawsuit. Airline flights are divided into categories based on the amount of noise emitted by the types of aircraft they fly.

Most of Southwest’s flights were in a discretionary category that is subject to the most volatility during the annual changes, said airport spokeswoman Courtney C. Wiercioch.

“We do not want to discontinue this service,” Hardage said. “It was not anticipated, or we would have not started the service on Jan. 15.”

Mitchell said America West has agreed to honor tickets from Phoenix-bound Southwest passengers without charging them extra. With the additional flight on the route, America West will have seven daily round trips to Phoenix.