One airline expects flight caps to end

Paul Clinton

JOHN WAYNE AIRPORT -- So far, most of the 11 airlines using the

airport have kept mum about whether they would support or oppose a

proposal by Newport Beach to extend flight restrictions.

A Southwest Airlines spokeswoman changed that pattern Friday when she

said the airline expects the flight caps to be lifted after Dec. 31,

2005, when the settlement agreement expires.

“It’s our understanding that the agreement will end in 2005,” said

Kristin Nelson, a spokeswoman for the airline. “We would expect that to

happen.”

Officials from Newport Beach and Orange County are working on a

possible extension of the settlement agreement, which went into place in

1985.

Under the conditions now in place, the airlines are limited to 8.4

million annual passengers and 73 daily departures and operate under a

series of noise limits.

Newport Beach Councilman Gary Proctor, who is working closely with

other officials to extend the limits, said he wasn’t surprised by

Southwest’s position.

“It’s a legal argument that we have anticipated,” Proctor said. “The

argument is not all that surprising or unreasonable. There’s going to be

opposition to the settlement extension in some quarters.”

Proctor and other City Council colleagues have proposed extending the

caps, but with moderate increases.

Under a Newport Beach proposal, the annual passenger cap would

increase to 9.8 million while daily departures would up to 85 -- a 16%

increase for both. The airport’s mandatory nighttime curfew, put in place

prior to 1985, would be extended until 2026.

Nelson said the airline expects the curfew to stay in place past 2005.

It was grandfathered into effect past 1990, when Congress changed federal

law to require airports to seek federal approval for new restrictions.