Should John Wayne Airport Be Expanded?

* The headline, “John Wayne’s Noise Curfew Faces Threat” (Oct. 7) repeats a scare tactic used by El Toro proponents to rally support for their plans. With most of Southern California’s future population growth occurring in inland regions, there is no need for a massive increase in airport capacity in Orange County. Certainly, there is absolutely no need to remove John Wayne Airport’s nighttime curfews.

San Diego’s Lindbergh Field, just like John Wayne, sits on 500 acres and has only one jet runway. However, Lindbergh handles 80% more air carrier flights and serves more than twice as many travelers as John Wayne. It maintains this flight schedule while still operating under a nighttime departure curfew.

If we need more capacity, the only thing that stands in the way of more passengers being served by John Wayne is politics. John Wayne is limited, not by its hours of operation, but by artificial caps on its number of flights and passengers--caps that were negotiated between the county and Newport Beach and which expire in 2005.

LEONARD KRANSER

Dana Point

* I am very much aware of the expansion plans in place should the El Toro airport be defeated. El Toro must share in the county’s need to have airport service, which in turn is generated by more and more people and businesses coming to the surrounding area. If we grow, yes, we have to have parks and recreation, but we also have to have transportation avenues to take care of the many cars commuting, truck deliveries, and people and cargo going nationally or globally to and from our county. It is not to debate whether this is progress, but to facilitate existence of what is happening now.

We cannot go back to the past, so we have to accommodate future development to meet the needs of the growing concentration of people in the county. If the county chooses to put all the expansion at John Wayne, then Newport Beach, Costa Mesa and Corona del Mar will become another Playa del Rey, and only the “hard of hearing” will survive in peace.

You would think modern technology could design a quiet aircraft.

JANE FARWELL

Newport Beach

* When will the consultants take an objective view of the airport situation?

Two articles stand out: the need to eliminate the John Wayne airport nighttime curfew (“John Wayne’s Noise Curfew Faces Threat,” Oct. 7) and the award by Congress of an increased amount for a light rail system, (“Disputed Light Rail Proposal Wins a $2-Million Boost,” Oct. 7). What do these have in common? A lot.

Warren Sprague, the airport planners’ consultant, states that the county must eliminate the curfew to handle increased passenger loads and nighttime cargo flights. I disagree. We have several regional airports that can adequately handle cargo flights, from the former March Air Force Base in Riverside to Ontario International. Sure, the county may miss some landing fee and transportation licensing revenue, but it is a small price to pay for maintaining the “quality of life.”

The expected passenger level increases in future years can be accommodated at the recently redesigned Ontario airport. If you add the high-speed light-rail system, currently proposed to go from Irvine to Fullerton, modifying the route to go from John Wayne to Ontario, it’s a winner. Both counties (Orange and San Bernardino) get additional revenue, a relatively smog-free transportation system is created, and additional truck traffic is routed to areas that can better serve their transportation needs.

I hope we can set aside vested interests and begin to think regionally, not provincially.

TIM O’LEARY

Lake Forest

* Thank you, Times, for finally printing the other side of a two-sided issue. For a year now, all I have read about is the ramifications of an El Toro airport, and nothing about the larger ramifications or even the possibility and true scope of a John Wayne expansion. This is not a one-sided issue of NIMBYism. Let us not treat it as one.

AARON ELDER

Costa Mesa

* Question: How do you choose the best consultant? Answer: Ask all of the candidates, “How much is one plus one?” Then hire the candidate who answers, “Whatever number you want.” Orange County airport planners needed a way to frighten Newport Beach, Costa Mesa and Fountain Valley area residents into supporting an airport at El Toro, so they hired P&D; Aviation, a consulting firm, to “discover” that the nighttime curfew at John Wayne Airport would have to be lifted, if the El Toro airport is not built. Nonsense.

ROD FREED

Mission Viejo

* I wonder who is behind the efforts to destroy a valuable asset?

For years I have been bombarded with propaganda mail, phony “surveys” and ads in newspapers and TV presenting false and misleading “facts” about the airport at El Toro. In all this time, I’ve received almost no mail or seen much propaganda on the other side.

Somebody is spending a lot of money to try to tear up a lot of concrete to make room for developers to put up more shopping centers and expensive homes. Who are these people?

DR. DAVID FEIGN

Santa Ana