John Wayne flights to Hawaii appear ready for takeoff

Deepa Bharath

Six thousand passengers who have already booked tickets to Hawaii on

Aloha Airlines taking off from John Wayne Airport beginning May 1 may not

be disappointed after all.

The Board of Supervisors today is expected to approve the airline’s

leases for a year.

Todd Spitzer and Tom Wilson, whose 5th District includes Newport Beach

and many of the South County cities fighting an El Toro airport, had

pledged to oppose the leases if the county continued to pursue shifting

the airport’s two cargo flights to an airport at the former El Toro

Marine base.

That change was pushed for by the Newport Beach City Council and the

pro-El Toro Airport Working Group. The groups pushed the board to move

the flights “as soon as possible” to the proposed El Toro airport.

Kim Koeppen, spokeswoman for Supervisor Wilson, said Monday that

Wilson is “very optimistic about Tuesday’s vote.”

“He believes that the concerns raised by Supervisor Spitzer have been

addressed,” she said. “It’s nice that there would be direct service to

Hawaii from Orange County and that the opportunity has opened up in John

Wayne. It could be an economic boost for the airport.”

Aloha has lobbied the airport for nearly a year to be added to the

list of John Wayne’s commercial airlines. In June, the airline

successfully qualified a modified Boeing 737 with the Federal Aviation

Administration for use at the airport.

Last year, Aloha flew more than 5 million passengers. The airline

operates 1,100 weekly flights to and from the islands.