John Wayne opens more checkpoints
Marisa O’Neil
Summertime travelers going through John Wayne Airport should spend
less time waiting in line after the airport doubled its security
checkpoints.
Space for eight new checkpoints -- four at each end of the
terminal -- opened on Friday. In their first day of operation,
passenger wait times were cut in half, airport spokesman Justin
McCusker said.
“Without even opening all the checkpoints -- we opened six on each
end -- we cut the wait from 45 minutes to 20 minutes, especially
during the peak hours between 5 a.m. and 10 a.m.,” McCusker said.
Before the expansion, the airport had four security checkpoints at
each end and long lines of passengers often piled up, waiting to get
to their gates. Months of record-setting passenger levels made the
increase necessary, McCusker said.
County supervisors in March approved an emergency contract to
construct the additional lanes before the summertime rush. The Fourth
of July is typically one of the busiest days of the year, McCusker
said.
The project cost $4.5 million, which was paid for by Federal
Aviation Administration grants. It added 1,700 feet of space at each
end of the terminal for the checkpoints, McCusker said.
The Transportation Security Administration is responsible for
providing the airport with screeners and equipment, he said. They
supplied enough for four lanes on Friday and more are planned as they
are needed, said Nico Melendez, spokesman for the Transportation
Security Administration.
Passenger caps at the airport were slightly relaxed last year
because of revisions to the John Wayne Settlement Agreement that
allow expansion in exchange for flight caps through 2015. Before
January 2003, passenger numbers were capped at 8.4 million annually
but are now capped at 10.3 million by the city of Newport Beach and
community groups.
Business travel at the airport has also remained strong, despite
economic troubles elsewhere in the country, McCusker said.
As a result, 14.4% more passengers used John Wayne Airport in the
first four months of this year as in the same months of 2003,
McCusker said.
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