Briefly in the news

-- Paul Clinton

The Orange County Board of Supervisors is expected to grant Aloha

Airlines a nearly four-year extension to operate two flights out of John

Wayne Airport at its meeting today.

Airport Director Alan Murphy has recommended extending leases with the

carrier through Dec. 31, 2005, when the 1985 settlement agreement will

expire. That agreement put into place the flight limits at the airport.

Aloha was given the two flights on an interim, one-year basis on April

3. The airline began flights May 1.

With the extension, Aloha would join the 10 other carriers at the

airport that hold long-term flight slots.

The two permanent slots Aloha would receive come from TransWorld

Airlines, which was taken over earlier in the year by American Airlines.

TWA will be folded Dec. 2, according the the airline’s Web site.

Aloha would give up its two “supplemental” daily departures, floating

slots Murphy can grant to any airline. Those slots would go back into the

hopper and could be handed out in the future to either a new or existing

airline.