Airport Opinion Staying Divided

In discussing the El Toro area planning project among our association’s members, several have asked if there are any practical alternates offered in lieu of a commercial airport at El Toro to serve the growing Orange County air transportation requirements as Orange County moves into the 21st century. If there are, we have not heard of any.

Even by the greatest stretch of imagination and a complete lack of vision and foresight, there is no way that the small John Wayne Airport with all its constraints can serve the economic and world air travel requirements of the Orange County residents. Most certainly this would be true if Orange County businesses were looking forward to participating in the world’s growing markets. Without proper and adequate air transportation we are handicapping new job developments and crippling the economy of Orange County.

If those “doubting Thomases” in the South County area need any positive confirmation of the growing requirements for air transportation, all they would have to do is look at the billions of dollars of backlog that only one aircraft manufacturer such as the Boeing Co. has on its books.

The main problem in this airport squabble is the people in the South County area, representing less than 20% of the population of Orange County. They are of a nonnegotiable mind-set as far as any cooperative plan between the South and North County areas.

[Former] Supervisor Marian Bergeson at the recent Airport Working Group meeting kept stating that we need communication between the two areas if we are ever going to resolve our county’s future air transportation problem. However, in order to achieve such communication you have to have willingness on the part of both parties. Despite repeated offers for such participation over a period of time, such willingness has not been forthcoming from the so-called leaders in the South County. They seem to have an attitude of all or nothing, which is not conducive to a negotiating atmosphere.

The residents of Newport Beach have carried the brunt of the noise inconveniences related to the operation of an airport for years. South County residents have participated and enjoyed the convenience of John Wayne Airport but do not wish to contribute anything toward providing the necessary air transportation capacity that will allow Orange County to have its rightful share of business from the growing world markets.

If this does not occur, we can only look toward Orange County becoming a second- or third-class county.

E.P. BENSON

President

Dover Shores Community Assn.

Newport Beach

* Gene A. Sullivan’s Nov. 3 letter says Orange County’s growing air traffic demand cannot be handled by John Wayne Airport.

Compared to the same period last year, the “growing” overall demand at John Wayne for the first nine months of 1996 increased by a modest 0.65%, or 35,433 passengers.

That was thanks partly to a September jump in travelers taking advantage of earlier promotional fares by the airlines. Until that month, demand was actually down 0.2% compared to the same period last year.

At that rate, it will take over 35 years for that airport to just reach its 8.4-million-passenger-per-year legal cap, which expires in 2005. And another 200 years thereafter to accommodate the additional 7 million air passengers that the airport can physically handle.

The major airlines are expanding funds to upgrade facilities at Los Angeles International Airport, which has a master plan underway to expand its capacity to 98 million passengers annually. With Ontario and Long Beach airports operating well below capacity, an El Toro facility will only benefit Newport Beach, whose main agenda has been and is the closure of John Wayne Airport.

NICOLAS DZEPINA

Aliso Viejo

* I am a commercial pilot and aircraft owner. I have lived in Orange County for almost 30 years and I have seen John Wayne Airport reach dangerous levels of activity.

These dangers have been created by the use of large (Boeing 757) aircraft without adequate separation from other aircraft. Several years ago we witnessed what “wake turbulence” can do when a business jet carrying local business executives crashed on final approach to Orange County Airport following a Boeing 757.

We must seize upon this opportunity to have another airport which is able to serve the residents and businesses of this county. El Toro will certainly fill this need and will do so in a safe way.

We hear a lot from the opponents of the commercial use of El Toro about noise. I live in Newport Beach on the extended center line of the departure path utilized by the commercial aircraft departing John Wayne Airport. Large aircraft pass over my house at 1,500 feet all day. We don’t even hear them as they pass overhead. We have tuned them out and they are not an issue. Noise truly is not an issue that should be considered in this decision-making process.

Let’s all work together to make this opportunity work for the benefit of this county as a whole.

DAVID OBERBECK

Newport Beach

* I am intrigued by the idea of secession of south Orange County cities from the county. This makes a great deal of sense to me.

Northern and southern Orange County have not shared similar agendas for quite some time. The El Toro Airport issue only amplifies these dissimilarities.

I recommend that any Orange County citizens interested in further investigating the possibility of separating into north and south Orange counties address their respective city councils in this regard as soon as possible. The pluses and minuses must be weighed carefully, but at the moment, separation (or even divorce as a metaphor) is quite appealing.

BETH SUMMERL

South Laguna