Record number use JWA in 2003

June Casagrande

More than 8.5 million travelers used John Wayne Airport last year,

breaking the airport’s record and racking up an 8% increase from

2002.

The 8,535,130 passengers who came through John Wayne in 2003 broke

several airport records. They included an extraordinarily large

number of holiday travelers: Nearly 470,000 travelers came through

the airport for the Christmas-New Year’s holiday season, an 8.5%

increase over 2002. The year also included the single busiest travel

day in the airport’s history on Dec. 1, when 13,518 passengers used

the airport.

Airport officials said that the numbers are good news for Orange

County.

“Since we’re primarily a business travel airport, it definitely

says the economy is doing well in the county,” said Justin McCusker,

manager of governmental relations at the airport.

City Councilman Steve Bromberg, who has served on a number of

committees to control future airport expansion, said that record

passenger levels at the airport are not cause to worry that airport

noise and pollution will get out of control.

“People tend to get nervous when they hear about things like

record passenger levels at JWA, so I’m glad to be able to help put

that in perspective,” Bromberg said, explaining that a limited amount

of growth at the airport is permitted under the John Wayne settlement

agreement. “We know that air traffic is going to increase; there’s

nothing we can do about that. However, as the result of the

settlement agreement, there will still be no more than 12 additional

flights a day.”

The settlement agreement, the result of a lawsuit by the city of

Newport Beach and several citizen groups, limits the number of new

gates and flights at the airport until 2015.

The airport is expanding the Thomas F. Riley Terminal building.

The expanded terminal will allow the airport to accommodate more

passengers. The settlement agreement allows the airport to serve up

to 10.3 million passengers.

“After safety and convenience for our passengers, our first goal

is to make sure we’re always abiding by the settlement agreement and

working to be a good partner with the city and the citizens who are

party to that agreement,” McCusker said.