Orange County-area airports have experienced recent shifts in air carrier mixes and routes due to changes related to ownership, operations and government actions.
The most recent were at the two facilities not named for an iconic American actor:
• Hawaiian Airlines will begin service to Honolulu from Long Beach Airport on May 31, and on Sept. 5 JetBlue Airways Corp. will cut 11 daily flights from the airport to various locations.
• Ontario International Airport added a China Airlines daily flight to Taiwan on March 25, partly targeting OC markets; JetBlue will add a flight to New York on Sept. 5.
China is “our first transoceanic flight ever,” said airport Chief Executive Mark Thorpe. Before New York, Ontario also had no East Coast service.
JetBlue’s cut at Long Beach Airport is a big move by the facility’s dominant airline; it has 34 daily departures from Long Beach and carries about 75% of the airport’s 3.8 million annual passengers.
John Wayne Airport two years ago began to dislodge Southwest Airlines Co. from its perch as OC’s dominant carrier. It’s still the busiest, but its average monthly totals have fallen from the mid-400,000s in 2016 to the low- to mid-300,000s.
The airport’s annual passenger total is capped at 10.8 million until 2021—it juggles capacity to stay under that, hitting 10.4 million last year—and has no plans to add airlines, Airport Director Barry Rondinella said in January.
The Dance
In the complex web of airline flight planning, carriers at most airports set new routes months in advance, but can often alter plans and inform airports of changes on much shorter time frames. Regulations and agreements governing John Wayne Airport, meanwhile, have it and county supervisors charting annual passenger allocations each August—meaning new entrants can step up only once a year.
Airlines’ frenetic scheduling and overlap among airports means a facility’s loss can lead to gain.
“We see this as an opportunity to create a better balance among the air carriers,” Long Beach Airport Director Jess Romo said.
JetBlue’s cutting flights by a third at Long Beach could benefit Southwest or a new carrier, depending on how the cuts go.
John Wayne declined Southwest’s 2016 request for 930,000 more 2017 passengers, and the airline cut seven flights. Long Beach recently gained nine flight slots following a noise test. Southwest took four, later adding two. It’s the second-busiest airline there and could add service as JetBlue retreats—or not.
“It’s possible [JetBlue] won’t give up slots,” said Long Beach Airport Noise and Environmental Officer Ron Reeves.
City regulations let an airline keep a slot if it flies from it four out of seven days, and no new carriers can enter, though current ones can fill gaps. JetBlue, if it spreads cuts across all 34 of its daily-departure slots there, officially retains its total. It hasn’t submitted a final plan, only flight-frequency cuts; none of its destinations are being eliminated.
An agile Southwest is likely to add service but can’t cut into JetBlue’s control. It said it “absolutely would analyze any opportunity to respond to obvious demand for our service,” but one carrier not currently in Long Beach, Allegiant Airlines, said it’s not interested.
Three other carriers not there yet—United Airlines, Alaska Airlines and Frontier Airlines—declined to comment.
Long Beach has “had inquiries, [including] one [airline] in particular that’s not here” that Reeves wouldn’t name.
China Bound
Thorpe said Ontario is growing and that Orange County is a target.
He’s marketing new China Airlines flights in Irvine and north OC, which have large Asian populations, and “the Garden Grove area [for] connecting flights to Vietnam.”
Airports can track “where every ticket sold comes from, and we show that to airlines” to demonstrate demand in an area, Thorpe said.
He took the chief executive role in October after a stint as interim CEO after serving as chief development officer since September 2016, two months before Ontario, previously part of Los Angeles World Airports, went independent.
Thorpe plans more domestic flights— John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York represents JetBlue’s return to Ontario after 10 years—plus international ones, the latter a “bigger opportunity … more lucrative for us.”
Ontario is the only one of the three airports flying overseas and is, he argued, a “better international gateway” for OC compared with Los Angeles International Airport, because “it’s closer [and] easier, with reliable traffic timing.”
General Dynamics
John Wayne’s holding pattern on new carriers can change when its cap grows by 1 million in 2021. One of Rondinella’s goals is to further diversify offerings.
Air carriers on its waiting list include Sun Country Airlines, Allegiant, JetBlue and Endeavor Airlines, and ones that could boost the airport’s international service: Volaris, AeroMéxico and Air Canada. John Wayne is pursuing “port-of-entry” status that would shift customs costs from airlines to the federal government, making it more attractive to those carriers.
Hawaii-based commuter airline Mokulele is also waiting, which suggests John Wayne also has interest from the islands.
Meanwhile, plans for general aviation wend their way through the approval process. It’s a limited contributor to airport revenue at 4% of the airport’s $130 million take, but two-thirds of takeoffs and landings and a vocal part of operations.
Thorpe said Ontario “doesn’t have a ton of turbo-props” and that its general aviation accommodates “smaller, private jets, up to Gulfstreams, [with] runways long enough for any private jet.”
Long Beach general aviation is currently nearly nil—194 passengers flew on “charter/other” flights in March—but a 31-acre parcel will be developed for it by one or both of two RFP-respondents, Gulfstream Aerospace Corp. and Ross Aviation.
Regional Authority
The airports are gradually growing into new skins.
John Wayne will stay regulation-heavy. But with Southwest dominance declining, strong general aviation—a third fixed-base operator is an option—port-of-entry status, and more passengers, it could produce a robust version—right-sized for the region—of a big international airport.
Long Beach’s Quonset hut days, when any flight could be had as long as JetBlue offered it, are in the rear view. General aviation will grow, and it’s adding carriers as JetBlue shrinks. The terminal is bigger and being modernized—a three-year, $59 million contract for second-phase work went to Swinerton Builders last week.
Ontario was considered a boondocks cargo facility, second banana to LAX, and according to one industry expert, “not seen as an asset” by ex-owner LAWA.
New carriers are the start. “We have to change people’s perceptions,” Thorpe said.
Long Beach won’t have international flights, but the other two do. Only Long Beach has Hawaii, but John Wayne is perhaps headed there; “not yet” at Ontario, a spokesperson said. Ontario flies farther, but John Wayne gives general aviation its due, and Long Beach has its small-is-beautiful appeal.
The three combined for 20 million passengers last year, compared with LAX’ nearly 85 million.
Portions of this story appeared in sister publication the Los Angeles Business Journal in a Long Beach Airport-focused article by Howard Fine.
