Flight routes to Long Beach must avoid Costa Mesa

As if flights from John Wayne Airport were not a big enough

nuisance for Newport-Mesa residents, now comes trouble related to

another airport entirely.

Long Beach Airport flights have recently begun using the Westside

and Mesa Verde for their arrival paths.

While there are fewer than 10 of those arriving flights now,

according to a Long Beach Airport spokeswoman, there will be more as

early as September and even more come mid-October. The city of Long

Beach is trying to cap the airport at 41 total flights daily, though

there are less than that now.

But those are flights bound for Long Beach, a city about 16 miles

northwest of Newport-Mesa. And as this community has its own airport

that sends departing flights overhead, it should not be too much to

ask for Long Beach to reroute its flights.

And city leaders should ask.

While some might argue this is a “not in my backyard” issue, it is

more than that. It is utterly reasonable to say there are already too

many flights in this small area. In a sense, that is what the flight

caps on John Wayne, and the settlement extension, correctly say. And

even then, John Wayne Airport will add roughly 12 more flights under

the new settlement agreement guidelines being considered.

The answer to the problem of these new flights is that the path of

Long Beach arrivals needs to change. But this will not happen unless

someone speaks up. That is where the Costa Mesa City Council comes

into play.

City leaders should demand that the airport return to earlier

flight paths that did not swoop over the heads of Costa Mesa

residents. If that fails, then the Federal Aviation Administration

and federal representatives -- who should be on speed dials, given

all the talk concerning John Wayne and the proposed El Toro airport

-- must be consulted to put a fix to it.

Costa Mesa leaders also must be more aggressive in halting these

flights than they were in promoting an El Toro airport. Newport Beach

officials waged the brunt of that battle while Costa Mesa officials,

for the most part, dragged their feet.

As the Long Beach Airport spokeswoman said, more flights are on

the way. In other words, it can only get worse, and no one in

Newport-Mesa wants that to happen. Just ask those living under the

John Wayne flight path.