Stop Mixing Airport Issues

What’s the sense in tying current operations and passenger service at John Wayne Airport, Orange County’s only commercial airfield, to the political wars over cargo flights and El Toro’s future?

Given the dispute over the reuse of the closed Marine base, even if airport operations at El Toro are approved it could be years before cargo or commercial operations could begin.

We already have been down the road of controversy over cargo flights, with airport planners trying prematurely to shoehorn them into El Toro in order to secure an aviation precedent. Now, a clause in a county legal document over cargo flights has thrown into confusion negotiations over a completely unrelated request by Aloha Airlines, which is seeking to become the 11th commercial carrier at John Wayne.

The airline’s application would offer the first service from the county to outside the continental United States, with two daily departures to Hawaii, which increases choices for county residents. The request has been held hostage in a Board of Supervisors battle over wording in documents for renewal of leases for two cargo air carriers that have been operating from John Wayne on annual leases since 1995.

Board members appear willing to renew the cargo leases. But because of complex factors having to do with the allowable number of flights under a legal settlement, the cargo renewal affects the separate issue of approving service by Aloha Airlines to Hawaii. The hang-up is one sentence in one of the legal documents covering the cargo leases and new airline slots that expresses the hope that cargo operations will move to El Toro “as soon as possible.” Anti-El Toro supervisors don’t want that clause, and since it is not binding--or even necessary to granting the slots--it should be removed.

Supervisors Todd Spitzer and Tom Wilson, who oppose an airport at El Toro, oppose mixing decisions on operations at John Wayne with the El Toro issue. Their opposition is critical because leases must be approved by at least four board members.

Aloha already has decided to accept nearly 6,000 reservations for Hawaiian flights from John Wayne starting May 1. Attorneys for the airline have warned the county that the El Toro dispute threatens to deny the company access it believes it is entitled to under federal law regulating access to airports. That’s a point the county board should take seriously April 3 when it again is scheduled to consider Aloha’s application and the renewal of the air cargo leases.

The airport battle is divisive enough without saddling the flying public with more controversy, legal actions or inconvenience in the use of John Wayne. The board can and should find a way to accommodate both the cargo flights at John Wayne and new service to Hawaii.