“Obviously, we are feeling the impact of what is going on in the airline industry right now, but John Wayne is traditionally a very strong market,” said Courtney Wiercioch, deputy director for public affairs at John Wayne Airport.
Passenger numbers could still pick up as the summer travel season heats up, Wiercioch said.
“We still expect to have robust service here — until we start hitting July and August, we won’t know what the situation is.”
Southwest Airlines announced plans this week to drop its Orange County to Las Vegas route, with several daily departures, but also has expressed interest in adding routes from John Wayne.
American Airlines will end nonstop service between Orange County and Austin, Texas, in September, and Alaska Airlines dropped flights between John Wayne and Oakland in April. The Hawaiian air carrier Aloha Airlines ended service from John Wayne on March 31 after the airline filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
Record fuel prices and customers reluctant to pay higher ticket prices have forced many airlines to slash service, said Alaska Airlines spokesman Paul McElroy. Alaska dropped five round-trip flights a day between John Wayne and Oakland in April.
The airline’s fuel costs for the first quarter of 2008 are up by 50% from a year ago, he said.
“We just found that service to be no longer profitable,” McElroy said. “Certainly we had customers who traveled that route, but people were reluctant to pay higher ticket prices. We regretted the need to do that, but we have to serve places where we earn a profit.”
