John Wayne Airport or El Toro?

The Times’ Oct. 15 editorial, “The John Wayne Airport Factor,” correctly blames Orange County leaders for “remarkably little leadership or cooperation across city lines” in the fight over Measure F and El Toro. But it fails to identify the real problem: There is no need for a new airport in Orange County.

The population of Orange County is projected to grow 25% over the next 20 years. This growth should cause county air passenger demand (12.5 million annually) to grow by no more than 4 million or 5 million by 2020. There are three airports within 30 miles of Santa Ana (Long Beach, Ontario and March) built to support approximately 30 million passengers annually, but operating at less than 15 million.

John Wayne Airport currently operates at 7.5 million, but could serve 12 million to 14 million without physical expansion and without lifting current nighttime flight curfews.

With these facts in mind, why do Supervisors Chuck Smith, Cynthia P. Coad and Jim Silva insist on a $7.2-billion, 28-million- to 35-million-passenger airport at El Toro? And why does The Times persist in reviving the false story that failure to build El Toro may mean expansion of John Wayne and dropping of nighttime curfews there?

MICHAEL SMITH

Mission Viejo

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The Times’ editorial might lead some to believe that restrictions in effect at that airport for 15 years might need to be relaxed. Those binding limitations, in a landmark agreement between the county and Newport Beach, are an example of how an airport can successfully co-exist with nearby residents. The agreement also requires the county to seek an alternative airport site, with El Toro as the prime candidate.

The arguments in favor of a commercial airport at El Toro are overwhelming. A large airport in the midst of an urban population center is a national transportation asset, particularly since no new airports are being built. Through the joint efforts of the county and the Marines, that asset was preserved by surrounding it with a huge residence-free noise buffer zone.

The conciliatory approach of the residents near John Wayne contrasts starkly with that of South County cities, which want to convert a vital national asset into an economically unfeasible park. They oppose commercial operations though they’re much quieter than the fighter jets they endured for 45 plus years. They reject all efforts at compromise.

Despite all this, events now seem to be tilting in favor of penalizing the communities around John Wayne, who accepted the fact of an airport in their midst and wisely worked out a binding agreement, believing the county when it promised to seek an alternative site to handle future demand.

That agreement should be renewed with no easing of current restrictions. A similar approach at El Toro might satisfy all but the rabid fringe who have replaced those fighter jets as the main source of noise emanating from South County.

DAN EMORY

Huntington Beach