South Orange County

The El Toro Airport


The truth about the El Toro Airport is coming out. After months of stonewalling, (Orange) County staff was forced, by a judge's order, to release secretive El Toro Airport planning documents for public scrutiny.

ETRPA, a group of the cities most impacted by the airport, wrote to Courtney Wiercioch and then-Board of Supervisors Chairman William Steiner, asking to see the plans. Finally, they were forced to sue under the California Public Records Act, and won. The just-released documents confirmed what many El Toro Airport doubters had been saying about the project: County planners now acknowledge that a two airport system, utilizing both John Wayne (Orange County Airport) and El Toro, has big problems and may not work. The County planners admit what the Air Transport Association told them in 1996: that the airlines will resist using two airports so close together.

Despite previous denials by the County, it also appears likely that the two military runways, planned for 70% of all El Toro take-offs, will be abandoned. Both commercial airline pilots unions have objected, for safety reasons. The released documents show that three of the four airport lay-outs being studied by County staff would remove these easterly runways. All departures would be to the north. However, El Toro's two main north-south military runways are too close together for commercial use and therefore, one of these also will have to be torn up, moved and rebuilt.

All of the letters mentioned above, from the Air Transport Association, Air Line Pilots Association, Allied Pilots Association and the El Toro Reuse Planning Authority are available to be read on-line at the El Toro Airport Website.

Leonard Kranser
Editor, El Toro Airport Website


DISCLAIMER:
The availability of this link to the El Toro Airport Website is not meant to be construed as an endorsement.



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