Terror alert hike doesn’t slow JWA

June Casagrande

Last week’s upgrade of the nation’s terror alert to code orange

doesn’t seem to have discouraged travelers from flying out of John

Wayne Airport.

Though statistics for February won’t be compiled until the end of

the month, an airport spokesman said that the airlines had not

reported any significant reduction in the number of passengers since

the federal government issued a heightened terror alert on Feb. 8.

Passenger counts continue to rise at the airport, while the number

of flights has been on a steady decline because of drop-offs in the

number of private flights labeled as “general aviation.”

January 2003 saw an 11.7% increase in passengers from January

2002. Last month, there were 617,319 passengers; there were 552,496

last year.

In December 2002, 695,284 passengers came through John Wayne

Airport, a 21.6% increase from the previous December’s 571,876.

November also saw a small increase. Passenger counts in November 2002

were 620,444, an increase of 6.2% from the previous November’s

584,293.

The biggest leap in year-to-year passenger counts, not

surprisingly, was in September. In 2002, the passenger count for that

month was 606,632, an increase of 50.4% from September 2001’s 403,467

passengers.

The trend reflects a healthy growth for the airport, spokesman

Justin McCusker said.

“The January numbers are definitely a very good showing,

definitely a positive figure,” McCusker said.

At the same time that passenger counts have been going up, the

number of flights has gone down. General aviation flights, which

usually make up more than 70% of the takeoffs and landings, have

decreased for four consecutive months, correspondingly bringing down

the number of total monthly flights.

In January 2003, there were 28,230 takeoffs and landings, a 4.6%

drop from January 2002’s 29,597. December 2002 saw a 0.3% decrease in

combined takeoffs and landings; November 2002 was down 1% over the

previous November; and October 2002 takeoffs and landings were down

2% from the previous October.