Federal Express Challenges John Wayne Ban on Jet Cargo

Federal Express, maintaining that being able to fly out of John Wayne Airport is now “critical” to its delivery system, is mounting a challenge to the ban on cargo jet operations contained in the proposed new airport access plan.

Memphis-based Federal Express stopped short of threatening legal action, but said Friday that it had asked the Orange County officials for information on compiling a new environmental impact report aimed at proving that the airport can handle jet cargo carriers.

The airport settled noise damage litigation with neighboring residential groups and the city of Newport Beach in 1985 in part by drafting an impact report. But that study, used to develop the access plan released Wednesday, did not address large commercial cargo services.

Julie Ellis, managing director of regulators affairs for Federal Express, said the carrier would get embroiled in a fight with the airport’s neighbors if it undertakes a costly study to prove cargo operations would not adversely affect John Wayne’s operations.

Federal Express Chairman Frederick W. Smith “has determined that John Wayne is a very critical airport to our system,” Ellis said. The company does not now fly jets into John Wayne.

Federal Express told airport officials earlier this year that it picks up and delivers more than 10,000 packages a day in Orange County. The company anticipates the need by early next year to provide next-day air delivery of 34,000 pounds of packages originating in the county.

The firm said that being able to operate a large jet from John Wayne will enable it to extend customer pick-up and drop-off times by 30 minutes or more. That would enable businesses in the county to ship more orders and would increase their productivity, the cargo carrier maintains.

Jan Mittermeier, assistant manager of John Wayne, said that neither Federal Express nor United Parcel Service--the only two cargo carriers seeking airport access--has indicated a willingness to add new, quiet jets to their fleets. Such plans can cost from $15 million to $20 million each, according to airlines that recently have acquired them.

Airport officials have said that they anticipated opposition from cargo carriers because the access plan proposal adheres to a longstanding county policy that gives passenger operations precedence in the allocation of the limited number of noise-regulated flights that can be flown from John Wayne each day.

The county opposes the requests by Federal Express and United Parcel Service for access to the airport because it believes the cargo carriers will use noisy jets. The number of takeoffs and landings of noisy jets are strictly limited at the airport.

Airport spokeswoman Kathie Rutherford said allowing noisy cargo jets to land would force from 60,000 to 130,000 passengers a year to travel on the freeways from Orange County to Ontario, Long Beach and Los Angeles International airports, creating a “not insignificant” impact on the Southland’s already overcrowded surface transportation system.

In addition, there is not enough vacant space at John Wayne to accommodate the facilities UPS and Federal Express say they would need, said Mittermeier, the assistant airport manager.