Newport Beach begins lobbying for JWA deal

Paul Clinton

JOHN WAYNE AIRPORT -- With their deal to extend flight limits at the

airport now sealed locally, Newport Beach and county representatives have

already begun stating their case in Washington, D.C.

Today, Orange County attorney Michael Gatzke plans to meet with the

Air Transport Assn., a powerful airline trade group that has opposed the

John Wayne Airport settlement agreement extension.

On Wednesday, John Wayne Airport Director Alan Murphy began

discussions with staff members of the Federal Aviation Administration.

Newport Beach representatives were expected to attend both of the

those meetings, officials said.

City leaders have said they are confident they can smooth the ruffled

feathers of airlines that oppose the restrictions.

“The city will be involved in some of those meetings,” Councilwoman

Norma Glover said. “I believe we will work through the issues with the

airlines.”

Many of the airport’s restrictions were the result of the 1985

settlement agreement, an outgrowth of city lawsuits to limit flights out

of the airport and jet noise in Newport-Mesa neighborhoods.

One day after the historic extension was jointly approved by the

Newport Beach City Council and Orange County Board of Supervisors, the

airlines reiterated their opposition to it.

Roger Cohen, a spokesman with the trade group, said the deal was an

attempt to “unilaterally change the ground rules.”

Changes to federal aviation law in the early 1990s prohibit airports

from imposing their own limits.

The 1985 settlement was set to expire at the end of 2005. City and

county leaders, in the extension approved Tuesday, gave airlines more

flights three years before the previous agreement would expire. Carriers

can now add the flights Jan. 1.

“There are a lot of carriers that want to serve Orange County,” Cohen

said. “You’ve got 14 kids at a birthday party, another 30 outside and a

cake that feeds three.”

City officials disputed Cohen’s claim that the deal is out of tune

with federal law.

“That’s a position that is not consistent with the legal advice of the

specialists that the city has hired,” Councilman Dennis O’Neil said.

“That’s a wrong assumption.”

Now that the four original co-signers of the 1985 deal have agreed to

an extension -- the city, county, Airport Working Group and Stop

Polluting Our Newport -- the deal must be blessed by a federal judge.

A judge from the U.S. District Court, Central District of California,

must sign off on the extension. Judge Terry J. Hatter, from that court,

approved the previous deal and several amendments in subsequent years.

New flight limits include a cap of 85 on the noisiest flights each

day, 18 flight bridges, 9.8 million annual passengers and four cargo

flights. Each cap was raised from 73, 14, 8.4 million and two,

respectively.

It still isn’t clear how the increased flight capacity would be

allocated, an airport spokeswoman said. Airport managers work under the

constraints of an “access plan” that was developed in 1985. That document

maps out the limits and details how they are distributed to the carriers.

A new plan will be developed over the next year, airport spokeswoman

Ann McCarley said.

“It’s unknown at this point exactly how that will play out,” McCarley

said.

The curfew, imposed in the late 1960s, could not be altered by county

supervisors until January 2021.

Under the curfew, departures are allowed from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. Monday

through Saturday and 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. Sunday. Arrivals are allowed from

7 a.m. to 11 p.m. Monday through Saturday and 8 a.m. to 11 p.m. Sunday.

* Paul Clinton covers the environment, John Wayne Airport and

politics. He may be reached at (949) 764-4330 or by e-mail ato7

paul.clinton@latimes.comf7 .