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.