News & Facts

Santa Ana, CA – John Wayne Airport established a new record high for October passenger travel last month as 788,897 passengers utilized the Airport. This increase in passenger travel represents an increase of 3.8% over October 2003 traffic counts. Also, commercial flight operations increased by 3.0% in October, as did total operations which increased by the same percentage (3.0%).

“We are extremely pleased with the continued strong increases in passengers this year and have worked hard to ensure a high level of customer service is being provided to those passengers,” said John Wayne Airport Director Alan Murphy. New security checkpoints opened in June have played an essential role in speeding passenger and carry-on baggage screening. “Passenger wait times for security screening have been drastically reduced providing a more pleasant travel experience,” noted Murphy.

Increased passenger levels are a product of the new capacity allocations set forth in the Amended Settlement Agreement between the County of Orange, the City of Newport Beach, and two community groups. The Amended Settlement Agreement, which went into effect on January 1, 2003, raised the Airport’s passenger cap from 8.4 million annual passengers (MAP) to 10.3 million. John Wayne Airport is a self-supporting enterprise, owned and operated by the County of Orange.

-SNA-