Newport Beach officials to mull flight futures

Paul Clinton

NEWPORT BEACH -- In a special closed-session meeting today, the City

Council is expected to hammer out its position on a pending deal with

Orange County that could pave the way for a new commercial airline at

John Wayne Airport.

The city, county and two activist groups are in final talks to extend

an agreement known as the “cargo stipulation,” which has permitted two

cargo flights per day outside the regular number of flights permitted

under the 1985 settlement agreement.

Newport Beach, the county Board of Supervisors, the Airport Working

Group and Stop Polluting Our Newport -- the four original co-signers of

the 1985 deal -- must all sign on to extend the cargo flights.

“As a new council, we haven’t discussed it,” Mayor Gary Adams said.

“We need to sit down and make sure we have a consensus.”

An extension of the deal could free up two departures for an outside

carrier such as Aloha Airlines, which has requested daily flights to

Hawaii and Las Vegas.

Under the terms of the settlement agreement, the airport may allocate

39 daily Class A flights, the loudest of the airport’s three noise

categories. The bulk of the airport’s commercial flights, as well as the

two cargo flights, fall under the Class A category.

Since cargo flights were introduced in 1995, the airport has held back

two of those 39 flights as supplemental departures, giving one each to

Continental and Trans World Airlines. If the four groups cannot agree to

an extension, those flights would be stripped and given to the cargo

operators.

Airport officials have suggested extending the cargo exception -- for

one flight a day each by Federal Express and United Parcel Service --

until the end of 2005, when the settlement agreement expires.

Under that deal, which has been on the table since October, the county

would agree to shift the cargo flights.

Eventually, the proposed, though controversial, airport at El Toro

could be put into the mix as well.

“If El Toro [airport] becomes available for cargo, the county will act

to reposition cargo from John Wayne to El Toro,” said John Leyerle, the

airport’s access and noise manager.