JWA On Track to Meet Baggage Screening Deadline
By CHRIS CZIBORR
John Wayne Airport is putting the finishing touches on its automated baggage screening system.
The $20 million system, which is designed to screen every checked piece of luggage, must be running by this week. The federal government has mandated that the Transportation Security Administration, which oversees security at U.S. airports, upgrade all airport-screening facilities by Tuesday.
John Wayne’s screening facility will occupy parts of two parking garages next to the airport terminal. After passengers check in, their bags will be funneled into the screening system.
“We’re implementing a permanent solution,those parking structures have been walled to be used for screening,” John Wayne Airport Director Alan Murphy said.
The Irvine office of Greeley, Colo.-based Hensel Phelps Construction Co. began building the screening facility in August. The airport has received a grant to cover a portion of the project’s cost from the Federal Aviation Administration.
Airport officials are seeking federal reimbursement for costs not covered by the grant.
Meanwhile, John Wayne Airport should see its passenger and cargo volumes go up next year after an agreement reached earlier this month between the Board of Supervisors and the city of Newport Beach.
Under the agreement, the airport’s passenger volume cap will jump 23% to 10.3 million, although actual passenger volume won’t hit the caps for some time.
The airport allows 73 flights a day, but is seeking approval for 85 a day from the Federal Aviation Administration, which is expected to rule by the end of the year. John Wayne Airport officials expect to review flight allocations with the airlines in April.
By 2011, the passenger volume cap will have risen to 10.8 million with six additional gates.
“It’s still at the planning process to see how we actually implement that,we’re going to be at this stage for the next six to nine months,” Murphy said. “It’s going to take about three years in total to do the planning, design and construction” of the gates.
The number of cargo flights out of the airport is set to jump sometime next year from two flights per day to four. United Parcel Service Inc. and FedEx Corp. currently operate one flight per day.
Murphy said it hasn’t been decided who will operate the additional cargo flights.
The airport reported a November passenger volume jump of 6.2% to 620,444 vs. last year. That’s just 2% short of its November 2000 level.
The number of overall flights was up 1.2% to 6,764 in November. And there were 970 flights by the airport’s commuter airlines, double that of a year earlier. The gains largely a come from America West Express and American Eagle, which started flying out of John Wayne Airport in July.
