JWA holiday use steady

Paul Clinton

JOHN WAYNE AIRPORT -- About the same number of travelers funneled

themselves through the airport in the week leading up to Christmas Day as

the year before, bucking a nationwide trend away from air travel.

Though airport officials could not provide data for the final week of

the year, preliminary numbers showed that traveling was steady during

that period as well, said Ann McCarley, John Wayne Airport spokeswoman.

“Some of the numbers were up, and some were down,” McCarley said about

the period from Dec. 20 to 24. “Holiday travel was comparable to last

year’s numbers.”

The airport saw dips on Dec. 20, the Thursday before the Christmas

holiday, and Dec. 22, a Saturday. The drops were 3.8%, or 1,025

passengers, and 4.9%, or 1,172 passengers, respectively.

Slight increases were registered on the other three days -- a 1.2% (or

325 passenger) rise on Dec. 21, a 5.1% (or 1,074) spike on Dec. 23 and a

3.5% (or 471) pop on Dec. 24.

Four of the days stayed well above the airport’s 2000 average of

21,369 passengers per day.

The airport saw passenger loads hit 25,607 on Dec. 20, 27,010 on Dec.

21, 22,765 on Dec. 22, 22,136 on Dec. 23 and 13,905 on Dec. 24.

Specific data was not yet available for the seven final days of the

year, McCarley said.

With travel nearly mirroring last year’s levels, the airport did

significantly better than other, larger airports across the nation.

John Wayne fought off a severe downdraft in domestic traveling, a

spokesman with an airline trade group said. During the week of Dec. 20 to

26, domestic travel was 12% below the same period in 2000.

John Heimlich, director of economic and market research with the Air

Transport Assn., said the disparity was not surprising.

Even though the nation’s airlines have cut about 20% of their flights

after Sept. 11 and a slumping economy has kept tourists closer to home,

John Wayne relies on a steady diet of business travel and is located in

an affluent community, he pointed out.

“People who use John Wayne are a little less sensitive to the

economy,” Heimlich said. “They’re richer.”

All airports have been required, via directives from the Federal

Aviation Administration, to raise the bar for terminal security.

Long lines heading into security areas at Los Angeles International

and other large airports may also be driving travelers to John Wayne.

About 160,000 people use LAX, a major West Coast hub, per day,

according to Los Angeles World Airports spokeswoman Nancy Castles.

“Your passenger screening lines are going to be shorter at your

regional airports,” Castles said. “It’s [about] looking at the volumes of

people.”

* Paul Clinton covers the environment and John Wayne Airport. He may

be reached at (949) 764-4330 or by e-mail ato7

paul.clinton@latimes.comf7 .