Mayor, FAA Add Fuel to the El Toro Debate

Re “Mayor Sides With Foes of El Toro Airport Plan,” Nov. 1:

As the light slowly begins to dawn in Huntington Beach, where the adverse impact of an El Toro airport would certainly be minimal, I can only wonder when the folks in Newport Beach will awaken.

Newport stands to lose big time if the new airport were to be built. The reality is (as it has been from the beginning) that they will be “losing” 115 daily flights from John Wayne Airport, but will “gain” the bulk of the 400-plus daily (and nightly) flights out of El Toro.

The FAA report (and the many letters from the two pilots associations) makes it crystal clear that flights out of El Toro will be to the west, and to the north turning west. Irvine and Newport will be the big losers if this airport is built.

I do not think the airport will survive the March primary. But if it does, and if it is built, it will be a matter of great satisfaction to me to watch the faces on the Newport troops as they come to realize too late they have dealt themselves a deadly blow.

Michael Smith

Mission Viejo

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Huntington Beach Mayor Pam Julien Houchen is worried about planned landings into the planned El Toro International Airport over Huntington Beach during windy conditions. Huntington Beach is too far from any of the airports to be interested in them.

However, the closest airports, John Wayne Airport and Long Beach Airport, normally fly landings over our city all the time. These are normal, everyday landings, not just when it’s windy. The number of flights into these two airports should decrease once the planned El Toro airport starts flights.

James A. Dixon

Huntington Beach

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Re “Court Asked to Rule on El Toro Airport Initiative,” Nov. 3:

An unbiased individual reading of the newly released FAA’s El Toro airport report would think the pro-airport side scored big. After all, the “antis” spent millions of dollars on propaganda trying to convince county residents that an airport there would be unsafe. So shouldn’t they be just a little embarrassed that the report flat-out denied their claims?

Nope! Instead they just keep playing the same old broken record trying to drum up flaws in the FAA results. It is absolutely amazing that they have such tenacity after being proved wrong.

They are also now using the one negative mentioned in the FAA report (a need to adjust air traffic patterns) to make yet another mountain out of a molehill. It is reminiscent of their grossly exaggerated claims regarding the danger of an airplane out of El Toro ramming into Loma Ridge.

Anna Olson

Anaheim

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The Orange County supervisors pushing so relentlessly to establish an airport on the former El Toro Marine Air Station insist on pushing the idea of the need to serve an estimated 18 million, or even 28 million, customers resulting from the “huge” growth of Orange County population.

Perhaps not less than 80% of their estimated passenger usage will consist of people who would fly to their destination from other existing airports if the El Toro airport were never built. No airline CEO or board of directors in their right mind would go to the enormous expense of hundreds of millions of dollars for new terminals, ramp equipment, communications ad infinitum only to serve the passengers they would carry anyway. They would in fact “be running in place” for no new revenue.

We have yet to hear of any airline saying they can’t wait for El Toro to become operational.

Kingdon B. Dietz

Laguna Niguel

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Re “The Future of El Toro in Light of Sept. 11 Attacks,” Letters, Nov. 4:

The four El Toro runways are massive: Two are 10,000 feet long, two are 8,000 feet long, and all are three feet thick. Such an array of runways can handle any military need that may arise as well as any commercial uses. They are on a 4,700-acre expanse that in turn is protected by an 18,000-acre buffer zone to protect surrounding communities from aircraft noise.

Loss of the runways would be a loss of an irreplaceable Orange County resource. A writer implies that the Los Alamitos airfield with its single 7,000 foot runway could easily replace El Toro for military purposes. Hardly!

Camp Pendleton is a Marine amphibious training base with no airport facilities; the Marines have stoutly resisted any attempt by Los Angeles or San Diego to install a joint-use air facility, one reason being that the Marines use live ammunition in their training exercises.

The writer also took issue with the concern that John Wayne would expand if El Toro isn’t reopened. Airport capacities are set by the number of people who wish to fly from point A to point B. The passenger load for JWA has increased by 100% over the last 20 years, mainly because of the population growth in South County.

This growth does not seem to be slowing, especially with the homes projected for O’Neill Ranch and for the anticipated growth from the Irvine Co. as it continues to populate its remaining holdings as fast as the toll roads are built.

How can any reasonable person conclude that John Wayne is not due for continued expansion?

William Kearns

Costa Mesa