EDITORIAL

Last week, Newport Beach city leaders and the Orange County Board of

Supervisors both signed an extension to the John Wayne settlement

agreement -- a first and important step toward keeping the skies above

Newport Beach clear of ever-more airplanes.

It will open the airport up to a few more flights -- 85 of the

noisiest each day, up from 73 -- and increase the yearly passenger

numbers from 8.4 million to 9.8 million. The compromise, which will go

into effect at the beginning of 2003, was a good one for the cities

surrounding the airport. The alternative -- no restrictions and many more

flights -- was untenable.

Unfortunately, it’s still not unthinkable. While the four groups that

had to sign off on extending the agreement are united, support for the

restrictions is far from universal.

The Air Transport Assn., an airline trade group, and the Federal

Aviation Administration both have raised questions about whether the

agreement legally can be continued. Either could send the airport’s

future back to where it was in 1985: the courts. And while that judicial

trip ended happily for Newport-Mesa, there is no telling whether a return

-- and a different settlement agreement, perhaps? -- would be as

fruitful.

So to Newport Beach city leaders’ credit, the day after they approved

the agreement, they were already talking about how to sell the deal to

the groups that could scuttle it. But from the sounds of the response, it

will take more than easy talk.

Don’t be fooled. The extension of the settlement agreement is still up

in the air. More money will have to be spent, as lobbyists fees are going

to mount while the airlines and the government are made to see that this

area cannot handle a bigger airport.

More time in Newport Beach City Hall will be wrapped up in John Wayne,

when there are other issues deserving of attention: water quality,

affordable housing, mansionization, the revitalization of the peninsula.

But until the extension is sealed, as well as signed, it is time that

has to be spent.

Think of it this way: For Newport-Mesa residents, it’s as if the long,

uncomfortable and annoying wait in the airport is over. Now, they just

have to get through the flight and land at their destination. But that

could be a bumpy ride.