The Orange County Board of Supervisors will meet in closed session today to plan the search for a successor to John Wayne Airport Director Alan Murphy, who will step down from the post on Feb. 5.
Murphy has worked for Orange County for 32 years, including 28 years with the airport, the last 15 as its director.
It will be the second high-level vacancy at JWA.
Former Assistant Airport Director Loan Leblow retired about a year ago and the position wasn’t filled, though a recruitment is underway, airport spokesperson Jenny Wedge said.
The airport opened its Thomas F. Riley Terminal during Murphy’s tenure: the original building with terminals A and B in 1990, and terminal C, which opened in 2011.
The airport was serving 4 million passengers annually at that time in a facility built to accommodate 400,000, Wedge said. The airport now sees about 10 million passengers a year.
Other developments under his watch include adding cargo service and international air service to Canada and Mexico, and the new parking structures, central utility plant, and inline baggage screening systems—that last component coming as part of increased airport security after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.
Murphy also led the facility through two amendments to its 1985 Settlement Agreement that governs airport operations, including noise levels.
Wedge said Murphy, 57, planned to pursue personal projects and “do a little traveling,” and doesn’t rule out a new job sometime in the future.
“He’s young and he has energy and he has passion,” Wedge said.
