Spring Air Fare Discounts Won’t Fly at John Wayne

The nation’s airlines are rolling out their spring fare sales and, as usual, passengers traveling out of John Wayne Airport are getting dissed instead of discounts.

The latest rebuff comes from Southwest Airlines, which just announced a new promotion dubbed “Take Along Fares” that enables a full-fare round-trip passenger to take up to three companions for an additional $50 each. Southwest is offering the promotion in all of its nonstop markets except--you guessed it--Orange County.

To add insult to injury, America West Airlines unveiled a similar companion deal to match Southwest--and the copycats omitted John Wayne Airport too.

Orange County has historically gotten the shaft on fare sales because the airlines must limit their flights to meet strict noise and passenger ceilings at John Wayne Airport. Fewer flights mean fuller planes and little incentive to offer discounts to fill them.

“We’d love to go in there and offer more fares to more cities,” said Southwest spokeswoman Cheryl Hoban. “We just can’t get the seats.”

Indeed, last year Southwest was forced to drop seven daily flights out of John Wayne, including service to Phoenix, after airport officials shuffled their flight allocations. Southwest had brought welcome competition to America West on the Phoenix route by offering introductory fares as low as $39 each way.

Southwest still offers seven daily flights to San Jose and seven to Oakland from John Wayne Airport. While the airline has stiffed Orange County on its discount promotion this time around, Hoban defends its overall record on pricing.

“We are the low-fare policemen,” she said. “When we enter a market, fares drop.”

Marla Dickerson covers tourism for The Times. She can be reached at (714) 966-5670 and at