Cargo Flights Shouldn’t Be Excess Baggage : * Everyone Suffers When Shippers Must Use Freeways Instead of John Wayne Airport

Back in the 1960s, when passenger service out of the Orange County Airport barely existed, only one small commercial airline served the community. Today, air travelers can fly directly to cities such as Chicago, Dallas, Seattle, and through connecting flights to virtually anywhere.

But the freight business is still trucking cargo to out-of-county airfields in Ontario, Long Beach and Los Angeles. Only things have gotten worse. The trucks today are sent into slow, sometimes gridlocked, rush-hour traffic and shippers here have to shut down business operations hours earlier, losing time, money and the competitive edge.

This lack of cargo service not only adversely affects businesses and their customers, but the entire community, adding to the county’s traffic congestion and air pollution. Air cargo remains grounded at the county’s John Wayne Airport, primarily because the airport has a limited number of daily flights and noise and weight restrictions set by a legal agreement made with Newport Beach as settlement of a lawsuit. It is also because county supervisors give passenger service top priority in assigning the scarce operational slots. The result is that even though the county generates 30% of the region’s total air cargo load, which is expected to more than double by 2010, there are no freight flights at all.

Opponents of cargo flights at John Wayne say freight could be accommodated at El Toro Marine Corps Air Station if a new commercial airport is built when the Marines move out. That’s true. But that may be years away, if ever. The United Parcel Service has ordered an environmental impact study at John Wayne. If it meets the same strict standards applied to passenger flights, cargo deserves space for at least one arrival and departure each day.

Sooner or later, Orange County must include cargo service to meet all the aviation needs of the community. It should be sooner.