Airline merger may open JWA to new carrier

Paul Clinton

JOHN WAYNE AIRPORT -- It won’t happen until the ink is dry on the

merger between American Airlines and Trans World Airlines, but another

commercial carrier could begin flying out of John Wayne Airport, a

spokeswoman said.

A new carrier could replace TWA at the airport, if that airline -- the

nation’s eighth largest -- is bought and dissolved by American.

After the two companies cement their merger, reported by several news

agencies Monday, John Wayne Director Alan Murphy is expected to decide

how to allocate TWA’s four daily arrivals and departures.

Murphy could either give the flights to one of the five carriers on

the airport’s waiting list or hand them to one of the nine others that

now use the 14-gate terminal.

Each of the airlines are allocated a specific number of monthly

departures by the airport’s access plan. The guidelines were put in place

after the 1985 settlement agreement that established an 8.4 million

annual passenger cap at the airport.

Right now, American flies 34 planes out of John Wayne per day.

After the dissolution of TWA, that airline’s flights would not

automatically go to American. Murphy could recommend the flights go to

one of the five carriers on the waiting list -- Canadian, Aloha, Western

States Express, Frontier and People Airways.

Canadian Airlines, which merged with Air Canada in December 1999, is

at the top of the list. If the TWA flights go to an existing carrier,

Northwest Airlines would be first in line. American is fourth on the

list.

Representatives from neither airline involved in the merger would

discuss the matter. American spokesman Tim Doke in a recorded message

declined to even confirm the deal.

“We are talking to lots of folks about lots of different things all

the time,” Doke said in the message. “Whenever those discussions result

in specific deals, we announce them promptly.”

American has also reached an agreement to buy 49% of DC Air and is

close to a deal with United Airlines to jointly operate US Airways

Shuttle.

The deals are expected to be announced Wednesday.

Any reallotment of flight capacity must be approved by the Orange

County board of supervisors.

“It’s totally up in the air,” John Wayne spokeswoman Ann McCarley said

about TWA’s flights. “It’s up to the board and the airport director.”