Barry Rondinella says he has a simple job.
“We move people,” John Wayne Airport’s new director said. “We get them where they want to go.”
Day-to-day, it gets complicated—the airport set an all-time high last year for annual passengers at 10.2 million, had about 40,000 flights over the same period, and this year starts a four-year, $102 million renovation of its oldest terminal.
The airport stirs the local economy with direct and indirect benefits estimated to include 43,000 jobs and $6 billion overall, according to recent studies. That’s the sort of economic engine that requires ongoing maintenance, and Rondinella’s plan calls for a focus on basics—“safety and security, being a good neighbor, and … guest experience”—amid all the action in store for this year.
The reference to “guest experience” is no goof by Rondinella, who sought the same thing at his previous post as an operations director at Los Angeles International Airport. He once took staff down to Disneyland to study up on how “easy, friendly guest experience” is done.
“When Disneyland opens, it’s ready for business, and I wanted to do that at the terminals,” he said.
Catalyst
He’ll get plenty of chances.
Passenger counts are rising, the renovation is starting, and more airlines could come on-board to offer service at JWA.
“We have carriers that want to do more here,” he said. “We always want to make room for new entrants.”
The interest list includes Virgin America, Sun Country Airlines, Allegiant Air and Volaris. The last is a long-rumored Mexico-based replacement for Interjet, which dropped its flights south of the border in mid-2014.
International traveler totals took a hit from that loss for nearly a year until Southwest Airlines and Alaska Airlines added Mexico routes last year. The international tally by year-end was up 17% over 2014 to about 324,000 passengers.
The airport also is seeking “port of entry” status with the Federal Aviation Administration, a designation that offloads to the federal government the costs of customs facilities currently borne by airlines with international routes at the airport.
Rondinella said the airport can take the lead on that effort rather than rely on its tenant airlines.
“We can initiate those conversations and do the work” to move negotiations forward, he said. “We’re the catalyst.”
Capped
John Wayne passenger totals are capped at 10.8 million annually through 2020 by an agreement that governs airport operations with its residential and commercial neighbors in mind. The cap rises to 11.8 million in 2021—daily departures can go from 85 to 95 that year—and the passenger total can hit 12.5 million people annually by 2030.
Rondinella said John Wayne Airport is “designed at 10.8 million” passengers and could achieve that total this year “depending on the economy and growth” locally.
John Wayne is a “medium hub” facility—another FAA term, which measures U.S. airports by how many passengers who board flights there. It lines up between “large hub” LAX and “small hub” Long Beach Airport, sharing the middle of the market with Ontario International Airport.
Contract
Rondinella is a quarter of the way through a one-year contract that pays $200,000.
A county spokesperson said at his hiring that the deal “aligns with other employees” with annual reviews, and Rondinella said he “look(ed) forward” to earning a longer-term deal.
John Wayne’s previous airport director, Alan Murphy, was paid about $199,000.
Bryant Francis, hired in 2015 to lead Long Beach Airport, gets $198,000, a news report said.
Long Beach Airport has 3 million passengers, 125 employees, and a $40 million budget, according to the report.
John Wayne Airport has 10 million passengers, 177 employees, and a $164 million budget.
Kelly Francis, Ontario International’s new chief executive, starts in March at a salary of about $399,000, plus performance and bonus targets that could add $159,000, a news report said.
Rondinella was deputy director of operations for the Sacramento County Airport System about seven years ago when he began thinking about a possible future role at John Wayne.
Each is a county-owned, medium-hub airport with commercial, general and cargo aviation, and flight training. Rondinella “benchmarked other medium-hub California airports,” and Orange County came into view.
“I wanted to be part of this,” he said.
He spent three years in Sacramento after a seven-year stint in Stockton.
Then he did five years as an upper-level executive at LAX—experience that helped land him the top spot at John Wayne in November.
