A Message from Melinda Seely,
President of AirFair
When a group of us organized in May 2002, we chose the name AirFair
because we believe the citizens of John Wayne Airport corridor cities
have done our fair share of absorbing the impact of Orange County air
traffic. We chose as our Mission: Stop expansion of John Wayne Airport.
Following
the amendment to the 1985 agreement enacted in 2003, the limit on the
number of annual passengers was raised from 8.4 million to 10.8 million,
added six gates, customs capability for international flights, more
overnight commercial jet parking and two more garages. While officials
note that the expansion is necessary to serve the 10.8 million annual
passengers permitted by the agreement, AirFair does not agree.
AirFair wants to ensure that the expansion is not actually intended to accommodate even more passengers.
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AIRFAIR ANNOUNCES NEW MISSION!
In
2002, recognizing that the negotiations regarding the 1985 Settlement Agreement
had occurred with virtually NO citizen input, a number of dedicated volunteers
formed a group we called AirFair.
Our conclusion - the
corridor cities had done their fair share to meet the aviation needs of
the area. Before we could even
print our motto: 9.41 "Shut the Door" those in control of the negotiations had
raised the stakes, and the new stated cap was 10.81 Our slogan became 10.8 and Lock the Gate.
The
goal of our group was to stop expansion of John Wayne Airport. Our mission? To slowly and deliberately raise the level of public and
political discourse about permanent caps at John Wayne Airport. Now,
more than eight years later, we are restating our mission. Why you ask? It is the opinion of those serving on the AirFair Board of Directors that we have achieved our original goal. We HAVE raised the level of discourse and we HAVE
established 10.8 million annual passengers at the Airport and NO MORE in the
minds and hearts of all concerned!
AirFair
has worked tirelessly to alert both the citizens of the County and the elected
officials, whose job it is to represent the people, of the disastrous
consequences to our quality of life and health if the Airport is allowed to
continue to expand. Hence our new
mission statement:
The mission
of AirFair is to establish a strong political base of regional support focused
on maintaining the current curfew, flight and passenger caps at John Wayne
Airport.
As
the negotiations for the expiring 2015 Agreement begin later this year, you may
be assured that those on the AirFair Board of Directors will be actively
working to insure transparency and citizen input. Working hand in hand with
SPON,2 we will be serving as guardians of your quality of
life.
No more growth at John
Wayne Airport, now, or in the future!
1The numbers refer to the MAP
cap - million annual passengers per year.
2STOP POLLUTING OUR NEWPORT, a local environmental organization founded in 1974, and a signer on the Agreement.
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You might be surprised at how many cities are affected by arrivals and departures at
John Wayne Airport
The arrival and departure traffic paths of John Wayne Airport affect several cities and communities in Orange County. The paths are not narrow, arriving over storage warehouses or departing over a stream of water.
Rather, the arrival path comes in over Anaheim Hills, Irvine, Orange, Santa Ana, Tustin, and Villa Park as well as the Foothill Communites and other unincorporated areas.
Departing planes take off and fly over Costa Mesa and Newport Beach.
The effect on communities continues as the planes fly out to sea and turn, coming back over land and flying over Aliso Viejo, Corona del Mar, Newport Coast, Laguna Beach, Laguna Woods, and other South County cities.
As a result, the following cities have signed a "Coalition Corridor Cities Agreement" because of their
collective support for the present JWA Settlement Agreement. The
Coalition believes that continued involvement in decisions related to JWA is essential to maintain a high quality of life.
Anaheim, Costa Mesa, Irvine, Laguna Beach, Laguna Woods, Newport Beach,
Orange, and Santa Ana, Tustin, and Villa Park
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AVIATION REPORTS
Every month the Newport Beach Counsel for Airport Affairs, Thomas Edwards delivers his report not only to the City Council but also to the monthly Newport Beach Aviation Committee which meets the fourth Monday at the Central Library, 8 a.m.
Posted on this website on another page is the current Aviation Report as well as previous ones. Click here to go to that page.>>>
The following report is a clarification of STREL, according to the city of Newport Beach. Follow the link to read the entire report.
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STREL
As many of residents are
aware, there have been numerous questions concerning the STREL. "STREL"
is the name given to an Area Navigation (RNAV) departure procedure implemented
on March 10, 2011 for John Wayne Airport (JWA) by the Federal Aviation
Administration (FAA). Accordingly, in an attempt to answer the continuing
questions, you will find below a detailed discussion regarding the STREL.
Some of what follows has
been covered in other venues or in previous reports but it is important to be
certain that correct information is provided to all concerned.
Changes Not Implemented by the City
Initially, contrary to what
you may have read or been told, the STREL was put in place by the FAA. It was not at the request of the City
of Newport Beach, the surrounding communities, or JWA. The FAA is solely responsible for the
vectoring and sequencing of aircraft within Southern California's airspace and
on the ground within each airport.
The primary responsibilities
of Air Traffic Control are to ensure the safe and efficient operation of
aircraft. Airspace control and
management is the sole responsibility of the FAA. Any change in departure or arrival flight paths can only be
approved, and implemented by the FAA.
The recent STREL procedure is part of the FAA's Next Gen program and has
evolved out of the DUUKE departure procedure originally implemented as part of
Next Gen by the FAA in the fall of 2009.
Purpose
The Next Generation Air
Transportation System (NextGen) is part of the FAA's plan to modernize the
National Airspace System (NAS) through 2025. Through NextGen, the FAA is
addressing the impact of air traffic growth by increasing NAS capacity and
efficiency. As part of that Next Gen, STREL was implemented with its further
purpose to center aircraft departures over Newport Bay. But this does not mean that aircraft
will fly exactly down the center of the Newport Bay. There has always been dispersion of flight tracks along
Newport Bay. According to the FAA,
implementation of an RNAV procedure should reduce the dispersion or "fanning" of tracks, but will not result in a single track down the
exact center of Newport Bay. However, so far the tracks that JWA and the City
have monitored along with on the ground observations indicate that the carriers
for the most part are passing over Noise Monitor 7, which is the waypoint
designated by the STREL procedure.
To read the complete report, go here>>>
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JWA
Seeks to Develop New Markets
On
or about March 2nd, JWA put out for bid ("RFP") a request for an On-Call Air
Service
Development Professional to render services for JWA. The proposed professional
shall
have access to airline key decision makers at the appropriate executive or
management
level, in particular with airlines serving Canada and Mexico.
The Professional
would have expertise in Mexico bilateral agreements and knowledge of
related
opportunities/impacts for Orange County; Orange County air passenger
demographics;
Stimulating new markets/routes and predicting impacts on existing
services;
Airline decision factors for new service and routes; Preparing and presenting
Air
Service Development programs to airlines; and Airline incentive programs.
At
the same time the professional should be familiar with airlines operating in
the
aviation
industry, and especially those currently operating at and on the new entrant
waiting
list at JWA; The types of aircraft, engines, and aircraft configurations which
currently
operate in the aviation industry, especially those types which operate at JWA;
The
agreements, regulations and programs currently in use at JWA, including the
1985
United
States District Court Judgment and Settlement Agreement/Amendment, the Phase
2
Commercial Airline Access Plan and Regulation, and the General Aviation Noise
Ordinance;
and U.S. Customs and Border Protection, and Federal Inspection Services
requirements
for international air service. The bids closed on March 17 and will then be
evaluated
by JWA.
In
response to questions raised by many about the RFP the County has indicated
that
the reason for the RFP is that JWA is currently
about 2 million passengers below the
current 10.8 MAP CAP and more than 1 million passengers below
their peak of a few
years ago. At the same time JWA remains committed to
operating within the parameters
of the JWA Settlement Agreement, which is part of the scope
of work outlined in the
RFP. JWA also feels it is responsible to provide service
opportunities to the traveling
public, including destinations such as Mexico that have not
been available previously and
accordingly are seeking to hire a consultant to help them
understand their market reach
and
how best to work with carriers to bring service and destinations to Orange
County.
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Do you have a question?
We have some answers. Check below for the latest information.
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Many of your questions about the latest JWA news can be answered by reading the monthly report of Thomas Edwards, the Newport Beach Attorney for Airport Affairs. Edwards reports to the NB City Council. The report is presented to the City Aviation Committee meeting on the fourth Monday of each month at 8 a.m. at Central Library. Council member Leslie Daigle conducts the meeting. The meeting is open to the public.
Posted here is the beginning of the February report which will be presented Monday, 28 February at 8 a.m. at Central Library. The entire report is a pdf file which follows this posting and is also on a separate page of this website with previous reports from Attorney Edwards.
February 2011 Update - All things Aviation: Thomas Edwards
If you would like additional information please contact the City.
2011 JWA Operational Update
Part of which follows has been reported earlier as regards flight schedules for the
coming year. Initially, WestJet, the Canadian discount carrier, announced the last week of January that it will begin flying from Orange County to Vancouver, B.C., on May 2 and to Calgary, Alberta, on June 13. The announcement comes as John Wayne Airport is
dealing with some unexpected airline changes. At the same time, Continental Airlines
suspended its service from John Wayne Airport to Honolulu and Maui on January 9,
2011 but announced it will return to flying the routes March 6, 2011. Meanwhile, Delta
Air Lines ended its nonstop service between Orange County and New York's John F.
Kennedy International Airport on January 3, 2011, less than four months after
introducing the route.
Currently there is one airline actively on the airport's waiting list for service:
Horizon Air, a subsidiary of Alaska Airlines. The airline told the airport it had no plans to start service but wanted to remain on the list. However, Air Tran, which had been on the top of the list, opted not to request any flights in 2011. The airline is going through a merger with Southwest. During 2010 the MAP count was 8.66 MAP which was under the allowable 10.3 MAP thru December 31, 2010, which increases to 10.8 MAP for the period of January 1, 2011- December 31, 2015.
1 A challenge by shareholders to the merger has been filed.
STREL Flights
As many of you recall, at the presentation on January 31, 2011 by the County at
the City Aviation Committee, the flight tracks were presented for the validation flights conducted on January 18; 19; and 21, 2011. To recap and answer some questions which continue to linger- the validation flights were conducted by Southwest Airlines. There were a total of 36 such flights (12 per day) and the flights utilizing the STREL were for carrier operations going east of Las Vegas.
If you want to read the rest of this report, you will have to click on the pdf file posted just below>>>
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Now some more answers
Air Quality Report Dr. Karleen Boyle's Newport Beach Air Quality Report scroll down
Irvine and Laguna Beach Sign AirFair Resolution >>>
JWA's Statistics May 2011 >>>
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AirFair Publishes its Fall/Winter Newsletter
AirFair sent its Fall/Winter Newsletter to thousands of homes in Costa Mesa, Irvine, Newport Beach, Santa Ana, Tustin, and Villa Park in late 2010. If you would like a copy of the newsletter and did not receive one, please send us an email at jwairfair@gmail.com or call us at 714.989.2323
Our next newsletter will be published Spring 2011.
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Newport Beach Air Quality Report by Dr. Karleen Boyle finds both large and small particulates resulting from aircraft. However, the level of particulates do not violate the Clean Air Act
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Dr. Karleen Boyle, a noted scientist with a Ph.D from UCLA, was hired by Newport Beach last summer to assess the air quality from the airport to the ocean in Newport Beach to determine if aviation pollution was detectible. Monday morning, Dr. Boyle made her presentation to a regular meeting of the Aviation Committee and an audience of residents.
The Daily Pilot in its Tuesday,
September 28th edition has a story so well written by Mike Reicher from
the Monday morning meeting of the Aviation Committee, there is no need
for me to write another one. Here is the link:
http://www.dailypilot.com/news/tn-dpt-0928-study-20100927,0,5385236.story
Dr. Boyle noted in her presentation that regulations often lag behind the science. For example, ultrafine particulate matter (UFM or UF) is not regulated, but scientific equipment has made such progress that its detection is now possible.
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| Dr. Karleen A. Boyle presents air quality report to Newport audience |
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| To your left under Dr. Boyle's photo, is the entire study in a pdf file. Dr. Boyle's conclusions, beginning on page 57 of her report, are copied below.
Conclusions and Recommendations for Future Research
This study was designed as a preliminary assessment of the feasibility of using field air sampling
to detect differences in the amounts and chemical composition of PM2.5 in relation to various
sources. These objectives were met. Despite the minimal sample size (n=3), statistically
significant differences in tested variables were detected between locations. The fact that any
results proved statistically significant at this level of replication suggests that a larger-scale
sampling project would yield additional useful information. Our data also indicate that chemical
profiles can be useful in distinguishing between airport-associated emissions, freeway emissions
and urban background PM.
Follow-up research to consider:
*Increase the statistical power of the current data set by adding more sampling periods at
the present study locations.
* Add sampling stations in locations of concern to the airport or community, such as airport
facilities or the Upper Newport Bay Ecological Reserve. This estuary has a history of
eutrophication and nuisance blooms of macroalgae (Kamer et al., 2003 ; Boyle et al.,
2004 ). It is unclear whether the amount of aircraft-derived nitrate and ammonium
deposition to the bay is significant. This potential environmental impact is not addressed
by our current data set.
*Add sampling stations at a set number of locations that provide a more defined spatial
pattern around the airport at crosswind and downwind locations.
*Design a "before and after" field sampling study to assess the effectiveness of proposed
mitigation strategies before extensive resources are expended on them. READ ON
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Air Quality Newport Beach, CA |
Come to a meeting
Next AirFair meetings...
Friday, 15 July 2011
Noon
Newport Beach Tennis Club Dining Room
2601 Eastbluff Drive 92660 (MAP)
Other meetings of interest >>>
Fall/Winter 2010 Newsletter
in your mailboxes by second week of November
Past newsletters >>>
Noisy Plane?
Call JWA Noise Office 949-252-5185
Read our list of supporters
Cities and officials who support our resolution to maintain
the flight cap of 10.8 Million Annual Passengers
View the List >>>
| View a presentation
Presentation to Costa Mesa City Council View PPT >
More presentations >
Study the research
Aircraft noise raises blood pressure even whilst
people are sleeping, says study
Researchers find noticeable increase in blood
pressure after 'noise event' over 35 decibels -
By Dr Lars Jarup Imperial College, London
Night-time noise from aircraft or traffic can increase a
person's blood pressure even if it does not wake them, according to a new study published today (13 Feb 2008)
in the European Heart Journal.
Read the entire report>
Read our accomplishments
We've been very busy! >>>
See a video
AirFair at "Speak Up Newport>>
Drop us a note
Or give us a call to tell us what you're thinking
or how you would like to help.
Contact Us>>
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Flyaway Bus between LAX and Irvine
A flyaway bus service began non-stop service Monday, 16 November between the Irvine Transportation Center and LAX. Funded by both LAWA (Los Angeles World Airports) and Irvine, the trip will cost $25 each way for adults but is free for children 14 and under. (ID for those 5-14 is required.)
Buses will use compressed natural gas and will drive in the carpool lanes on the freeway. Free Wi-Fi and ADA wheel chair accommodations are provided. Parking is free in the Irvine Station at 15215 Barranca Parkway, Irvine 92618.
Tentative schedule for departure from Irvine is 4:45 am, 6:45 am, 8:45 am, 10:45 am, 12:45pm, and 4:45pm.
From LAX departures are tentatively scheduled for 9:45 am, 11:45 am, 3:45 pm, 5:45 pm, 7:45 pm, and 9:45 pm.
Passengers must pay upon boarding with a credit or debit card; cash will not be accepted.
Go to the City of Irvine's website and read about the flyaway bus service>>>
For directions to the Irvine Transportation Center, parking, and other details, click here:
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LATimes
November 19, 2009
UCLA study finds higher air pollution near Santa Monica Airport
UCLA researchers find ultrafine particle emissions are 10 times higher than normal 300 feet from the runway -- a range that includes many homes. The study calls for larger buffers at urban airports.
By Dan Weikel
UCLA scientists have found that people who live and work near Santa Monica Airport are exposed to high levels of air pollution -- a significant health concern that has been largely associated with major commercial airports such as LAX.
The study, released Wednesday, shows that ultrafine particle emissions were 10 times higher than normal about 300 feet downwind of the runway's east end, where takeoffs generally start. The levels were 2.5 times higher than normal at a distance of about 2,000 feet.
A tiny fraction of the width of a human hair, ultrafine particles can travel deep into the lungs, penetrate tissue and even travel to the brain. Studies show that elevated exposure to the particles presents a health risk for children, older adults, and people with respiratory and cardiovascular diseases.
Although the research focused on Santa Monica, the study may have broader implications for regional and municipal airports that serve private planes and corporate jets. Many such airfields in Southern California are in densely populated areas.
Read complete story>>>
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AirFair needs your support
HELP US AT AIRFAIR HELP YOU
JOIN US TODAY IN OUR FIGHT TO KEEP THE LIMITS AT JOHN WAYNE AIRPORT
We want your e-mail! It is important that you include your e-mail address when you correspond with AirFair. When the time comes that we citizens need to stand up to the JWA expansion advocates, the best way to mobilize will be by e-mail.
AirFair
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TAKE ACTION!
Show your support
Learn how you can support AirFair and stop any future expansion of John Wayne Airport.
Read more »
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