Flights

Continental Airlines will end its Orange County-Maui service Dec. 31. Started in March 2010, the regular weekend flights will be canceled, according to airport spokeswoman Jenny Wedge. Continental will provide daily Maui service from Dec. 19 to 31, to take advantage of the holiday travel rush. The airline's Orange County-Honolulu service remains unaffected. "It's unfortunate this is ending, as we know there are lots of Orange County residents who travel to and from this area," Wedge said about Maui.

AirTran Airways began daily flights from John Wayne Airport to Mexico over the weekend, offering a message of "Bienvenidos, Orange County" at its launch party. More than 200 passengers boarded planes for the Cabo San Lucas area and Mexico City on Sunday morning. Two fully booked planes, each with a seating capacity of 137 passengers, left the airport's newly built Terminal C amid fanfare that included a complimentary Mexican-style breakfast, sunglasses and other gifts from the airline.

Beginning Monday, United Airlines will be end flights between Orange County's John Wayne Airport and Honolulu, Hawaii, due to a decrease in demand. Some pre-booked flights in June between the two destinations will be the exception. United Airlines spokesman Mike Trevino said that this particular route began in March 2010, just before the onset of a merger in October of that year between United Airlines and Continental Airlines. The merger operated as United Continental Corp. until last month, when the Federal Aviation Administration awarded United Airlines with a single operating certificate.

Residents from Newport Beach’s Bluffs neighborhood complain that a corrected satellite-guided takeoff procedure for jets from John Wayne Airport doesn’t shift noisy air traffic from over their heads as the Federal Aviation Administration said it would. In theory, the new procedure, called DUUKE TWO, is designed to shift outbound air traffic an eighth of a mile north toward the center of Upper Newport Bay. Bluffs residents say they still hear constant noise from jets that interrupts their phone conversations and drowns out their favorite TV programs.

For a second straight day, some of John Wayne Airport's scheduled arrivals from and departures to Chicago-area airports and other Midwestern hubs were canceled. By about 11 a.m. Wednesday, two United Airlines departures to O'Hare International Airport and one departure to Baltimore were canceled due to the storms hitting the Midwest and Northeast . Additionally, nine arrivals were canceled from various airports. In Chicago, 20.2 inches of snow had fallen through midday Wednesday, prompting airlines based at O'Hare to cancel all their flights until Thursday.

A small crowd gathered at the Back Bay View Park on Tuesday, watching as the first flights departed John Wayne Airport and flew correctly overhead. But a few people on hand insisted the situation was an anomaly, perhaps because the pilots knew they were being watched. "I'm personally offended," said Kay Rackauckas, who lives in Jasmine Creek and has complained that for several weeks, flights were veering over Corona del Mar before turning around over the ocean. "All this proves is they can fly straight.

Marisa O'Neil Air travel returned to normal Wednesday after a communication outage grounded flights throughout Southern California on Tuesday evening, canceling 64 flights here in Orange County. It caused later flights to leave after the airport's curfew. The Federal Aviation Administration is investigating why radio communication failed at the Los Angeles Air Route Traffic Control Center in Palmdale for nearly five hours on Tuesday. The outage started just before 5 p.m. and kept hundreds of flights grounded at seven airports until about 8:30 p.m. when communications started coming back on line.

Deepa Bharath The Orange County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday unanimously approved one-year leases for Aloha Airlines -- a decision that will ease the tension of more than 6,000 passengers who have already booked tickets on Aloha's direct flights from John Wayne Airport beginning May 1. "We're delighted," said Glenn Zander, President and CEO of Aloha Airlines. "And we're glad that it's 5-0." The issue was on shaky ground a few weeks ago when Todd Spitzer and Tom Wilson, whose 5th District includes Newport Beach and other South County cities fighting an El Toro airport, said they would oppose the leases if the county pursued shifting the airport's two cargo flights to an airport at the former El Toro Marine base.

Lolita Harper As Costa Mesa residents look to the sky and find more and more planes traveling over their homes, various aviation administrators, city leaders and airport officials are looking to each other as the cause. Federal Aviation Administration officials say changes in airspace have allowed airline pilots to take different departure and approach routes to local airports, depending on specific circumstances. "The whole purpose of making these changes is to give controllers and pilots more latitude in rerouting aircraft to deal with traffic and weather conditions," said Jerry Snyder, the public affairs officer for FAA Western Pacific Region.

A power outage at John Wayne Airport late Monday morning lasted about two hours and delayed a few flights, officials said. Authorities believe it was likely caused by construction on the airport’s B1 parking structure. A full count of how many flights were delayed or canceled is not yet available, but some flights were held more than an hour. On Monday, airport spokeswoman Jenny Wedge had heard four flights were delayed. “My guess is there were at least a few more than that, but it’s hard to tell at this point,” Wedge said.

In addition to that famously steep takeoff, some passengers heading out of John Wayne Airport could someday sit through a zig-zag  over the Upper Newport Bay, if the Federal Aviation Administration approves a departure procedure recommended by  the Newport Beach City Council. At its meeting Tuesday night, the council voted unanimously to send a letter to the federal agency proposing the procedure, which was developed with the help of aviation consulting firm Naverus for $75,000.

Whip Whitaker wakes up with a beautiful woman after a night of hard partying. He has a flight to catch in two hours, so he downs more booze and cocaine to pull himself together before strutting onto the plane. Whitaker is the pilot. What follows in "Flight" is a white-knuckle takeoff during a storm and an even more terrifying equipment malfunction mid-flight. Capt. Whitaker is a hero for his skillful crash-landing with few fatalities, all the more miraculous considering his condition.

Low-fare airline Interjet's first flights out of John Wayne Airport took off Thursday, carrying passengers to Guadalajara and Mexico City. The Mexico-based carrier is the second to offer Mexico service from JWA . The first was AirTran Airways, which launched service to Mexico City and Cabo San Lucas in June. AirTran and Interjet are also the first to make use of JWA's Terminal C customs checkpoint. Airport spokeswoman Jenny Wedge said in an email that Interjet's launch day flights were full, as were flights for the next few days, according to the carrier.

When Newport Beach native Dave Purcell heard that Jetlev Southwest President Dean O'Malley was about to fly Saturday from Newport to Catalina Island on a jetpack, he wasn't about to miss it. His friend - Christine Heck, 60, who was at the M Street pier where O'Malley took off at about 7 a.m. - said Purcell, 65, was like a little kid. "I wanted to see it," Purcell said with excitement. "No one has ever done it before. " That is until Saturday. According to online reports, the 36-year-old achieved his goal of setting a world record for longest jetpack flight by reaching Catalina Island about four and a half hours after departing from Newport.

Several people on board a United Airlines flight from Chicago to Orange County had to restrain an unruly man who was reportedly threatening fellow passengers, FBI officials said. FBI spokeswoman Laura Eimiller identified the man as 26-year-old Arash Durrani, also known as Ash, KTLA News reported Thursday. According to Eimiller, Durrani was taken into custody when the plane landed and will be charged with interference with a flight crew, a federal offense. Durrani is an actor, model and founder of Grow Clothing, a company geared toward promoting awareness of social movements and charities, according to imdb.com.

InterJet plans to offer daily nonstop flights from Orange County to Mexico City and Guadalajara starting in mid-October, the airline announced in a press release last week. The announcement came after the Orange County Board of Supervisors approved the Mexico City-based company's lease agreement with John Wayne Airport at the board's Sept. 11 meeting. InterJet had a "breakout year" in 2011 and plans on expanding its flight offerings to more U.S. destinations, including Miami and San Antonio, said spokesman Martin Elder.

Have you ever flown a commercial airline that offers open seating? You print your ticket early so you can get into boarding group A. You board with the first passengers and pick a window seat near the front. Life is sweet. Moments later, a gentleman takes the aisle seat in your row. It's all good! Now comes the nervous part. For the next 10 minutes you hope against hope that your row's center seat will remain open. That possibility becomes dicey as the plane fills up. Finally, you reconcile yourself to the fact that you'll likely acquire a seatmate.

AirTran Airways began daily flights from John Wayne Airport to Mexico over the weekend, offering a message of "Bienvenidos, Orange County" at its launch party. More than 200 passengers boarded planes for the Cabo San Lucas area and Mexico City on Sunday morning. Two fully booked planes, each with a seating capacity of 137 passengers, left the airport's newly built Terminal C amid fanfare that included a complimentary Mexican-style breakfast, sunglasses and other gifts from the airline.

Beginning Monday, United Airlines will be end flights between Orange County's John Wayne Airport and Honolulu, Hawaii, due to a decrease in demand. Some pre-booked flights in June between the two destinations will be the exception. United Airlines spokesman Mike Trevino said that this particular route began in March 2010, just before the onset of a merger in October of that year between United Airlines and Continental Airlines. The merger operated as United Continental Corp. until last month, when the Federal Aviation Administration awarded United Airlines with a single operating certificate.