Below is a list of recent news articles about JWA and sometimes AirFair. 

Scroll on down to read the articles.

Southwest wants to add two JWA flights                                           Daily Pilot   Sept. 29, 2011

Planners deny helipad request                                                            Daily Pilot  August 10, 2011

Southwest wants to add two JWA flights

Other carriers serving Orange County plan to cut back six flights a day.

By Mike Reicher

September 29, 2011 | 8:34 p.m.

Southwest Airlines will add two daily flights at John Wayne Airport if the Orange County Board of Supervisors approves the airport's 2012 capacity plan Tuesday.

With the added flights, Southwest will further dominate JWA, including at the new Terminal C, which is set to open Nov. 14.

This year's distribution of flights comes as officials ramp up for negotiations about the airport's passenger cap and other limits, which expire in 2015.

County-run JWA has to operate under an annual cap of 10.8 million passengers to limit impacts on surrounding communities. Each year, the supervisors divide available departures among air carriers.

While Southwest is adding flights, other carriers are dropping them. U.S. Airways, United Airlines, WestJet and Mesa Air are all scaling back their departures. Those four airlines would relinquish their rights to about six flights per day.

Airport spokeswoman Jenny Wedge said that in case the carriers are approaching the 10.8 million passenger mark, the airport would be able to withdraw some approved flights.

This year, Southwest has approval for 47 flights per day, and next year it will be allowed 49 flights per day, starting in June. The carrier would represent about 40% of the total seats allowed in 2012.

"It's kind of being bullish on the future," Southwest spokesman Brad Hawkins said, adding that rising fuel costs could change plans. "Orange County is definitely a keystone in our Southern California strategy."

Hawkins said he couldn't disclose if the company was adding new routes, but in May Southwest acquired AirTran Airways, which flies to additional markets.

Also in the JWA capacity plan is a new carrier, Compass Airlines, which plans to operate Delta Connection's commuter flights.

In other airport news, crews are finishing the Southwest and Frontier Airlines ticketing counters, among other interior improvements in Terminal C.

mike.reicher@latimes.com

Planners deny helipad request

Official says project on Airway Avenue wouldn't benefit the city. Council could take up the issue.

By Joseph Serna, joseph.serna@latimes.com

August 10, 2011 | 8:24 p.m.

COSTA MESA — A local developer's proposal to add a helipad on top of an office building next to John Wayne Airport should be scrapped because it would open the door for other businesses to do the same, the Planning Commission recommended this week.

In denying Kevin Coleman's request Monday to build a 6-foot helipad on top of an office building at 3132 Airway Ave., commissioners said they are avoiding setting a precedent and expanding the airport's perceived "footprint" on Newport-Mesa.

"There's no benefit to Costa Mesa," Planning Commissioner Sam Clark said. "We don't get anything out of the deal. We get an individual who can fly a helicopter into his facility. He's not a hospital. It's not an emergency need. No one is going to live or die based on this heliport."

Indeed, Coleman said the helipad is solely to accommodate the building's new tenant, Leading Edge Aviation Services, an aircraft painting company.

Leading Edge's owner currently flies clients to a hangar about 200 yards away, within JWA's property.

Coleman's request, and the helicopter's flight path to his property in the city's industrial end, was OKd by the Federal Aviation Commission and the Airport Land Use Commission.

As his request has gained momentum, so has its opposition. A Newport Beach city official sent a letter criticizing the request to the Costa Mesa Planning Commission, as did attorneys for AirFair, a community organization that opposes JWA expansion.

Critics argue the helipad would expand JWA's footprint on the community, even if it was landing on private property just outside the airport, and lead to other neighboring businesses to make similar requests.

The commission staff report suggested the commission approve the request because the helicopter wouldn't violate noise limits and did not expand the airport's footprint — which staff defined as the airport's property, discounting noise and other environmental factors.

"It's an incredibly myopic definition of a footprint," commission Chairman Colin McCarthy said.

With his request dying before his eyes, Coleman tried to reason with the commission.

"Where it lands does not indicate a growth of John Wayne Airport," he said. "If this helicopter was to leave John Wayne Airport and land at Hoag [Hospital], would that be considered an expansion? We wouldn't be having this conversation if it wasn't next to the airport."

The commission recommended denying the application. The recommendation next goes to the City Council, which could take up the issue next month.

Newport activists want to ground proposed helipad near JWA

Some of the concerns include student safety because Mariner's Christian School is 900 feet away and noise levels for neighbors.

By Mike Reicher, mike.reicher@latimes.com

July 28, 2011 | 9:43 p.m.

A Costa Mesa developer has applied to build a helicopter landing pad atop an office building next to John Wayne Airport, and Newport Beach officials and activists are lining up to fight it.

At Tuesday's City Council meeting, Newport Councilman Keith Curry asked the city manager to consider opposing the project.

Because most JWA planes take off over Newport, its residents have traditionally fought the hardest against airport expansion and noise.

But the developer and at least one Costa Mesa city official say they have stepped too far in this case. The conflict raises the questions of what is an airport expansion, and how much should Newport Beach residents intervene in their neighbors' affairs.

"Newport wants to clamp down on any expansion of the airport footprint," said Newport Councilwoman Leslie Daigle, who sits on the Airport Land Use Commission.

Daigle was the lone dissenting vote when the commission approved the helipad application last week. She said she couldn't approve the project because the business owner hadn't performed a noise study and, in her opinion, it was "amorphous growth of the airport," among other concerns.

Newport and Costa Mesa are part of the Corridor Cities Coalition, which has pledged to prevent expanding the airport's physical footprint.

The one-story building at 3132 Airway Ave. is in Costa Mesa, so the next step in the approval process is at the city's Planning Commission. In the light industrial area west of the airport, the office property abuts JWA land. It shares a chain link fence, said Kevin Coleman, a Costa Mesa real estate developer who owns the building.

He wants to build the helipad to accommodate his new tenant, Leading Edge Aviation Services, a commercial aircraft painting company.

Leading Edge executives want to be able to drop off and pick up clients on the roof, instead of walking to their nearby hangar.

"It would be like you go to work and have to park two blocks down the street," Coleman said.

Headquartered on the other side of JWA for years, Leading Edge has now outgrown its space, Coleman said.

The company has three facilities in the South, one in Victorville, and another in Malaysia. Its clients include Delta, Southwest Airlines, United Airlines and other global carriers.

Started by Castaway's resident Michael Manclark in 1989 with five employees, Leading Edge now has annual revenues of more than $27 million, according to its website.

"He's an American success story," said Costa Mesa Mayor Pro Tem Jim Righeimer, who also sits on the Airport Land Use Commission. "Everyone talks about government getting out of business owners' way, then they turn around and do this."

Righeimer said the helipad won't increase the noise because Manclark already flies his chopper in and out of a port 200 yards north of the proposed landing pad. And besides, he and Coleman say, there are plenty of jets there that make much more noise.

The noise isn't so much of a concern as an errant rotor blade for Bob Sladek, head of school at Mariner's Christian School, which sits about 900 feet away. He said he'd like to know how close to the students the chopper will fly.

A report prepared by the commission said that Mariner's Christian is not in the flight path.

Protecting students is one of the arguments that Newport lawyer Robert Hawkins made in a letter he sent to the commission.

A board member of airport activist group AirFair, Hawkins said he was writing on behalf of "residents and groups in Newport Beach" and not in his official capacity with AirFair.

In 2010, AirFair board members opposed a new luxury corporate jet hangar and helped kill the project.

"This is an emotional issue because Newport Beach wants nothing to do with John Wayne Airport," Coleman said. "That's an agenda that's been going on for 30 years, and there's nothing I can do about it."