Airline to cut flights at JWA

American Airlines will discontinue all flights from John Wayne Airport to the San Francisco Bay region effective Nov. 19, officials said.

The announcement comes several weeks after the airline disclosed its initial plans to scale back its Bay Area flights.

According to Jenny Wedge, the media relations manager of John Wayne Airport, the flight reduction will have a minimal effect on passenger travel.

“Our biggest concern is that we provide enough options to our passengers, and we already have enough Bay Area flights to do so,” she said.

John Wayne Airport currently offers 46 Bay Area flights, 12 of which are through American Airline affiliate American Eagle. After these flights are discontinued in November, John Wayne Airport will have 34 such flights remaining.

According to Wedge, the void left by American Airlines will be partly filled by two other airlines that recently expanded their Bay Area coverage.

“When Virgin Airlines and Southwest started [to extend] their coverage in that region, there was a high volume of flights to the Bay Area. We weren’t sure how long that would last,” she said.

Virgin and Southwest added a combined total of 10 additional Bay Area flights to their schedules.

Officials predict a slight decrease in the volume of Bay Area traffic by the end of their fiscal year.

“We’ll probably see a small decrease in the number of passengers,” Wedge said.

But due to prior agreements, the change will not financially impact John Wayne Airport.

“Any cost incurred because of one airline’s discontinuation of services is shared between the [remaining] airlines,” she said. “It’s called cost-recovery; under our agreement, their rates would increase to make up for it.”

The announcement did not catch John Wayne officials completely off guard.

“It’s not a complete surprise. We never know what [the airlines] are doing [to benefit] their own businesses,” Wedge said.

Officials remain optimistic about the effects of the flight cuts.

“We operate in a strong economic market. So even though all industries are in decline, we seem to recover pretty quickly . . . It’s just a small bump in the road,” Wedge said.

American Airlines officials could not be reached for comment.