JWA sees fewer fliers in October

Carriers changing or cancelling service has resulted in fewer passengers traveling through John Wayne Airport in recent months compared with a similar period last year, airport officials said Wednesday.

The latest figures show that the total number of passengers at JWA declined 4.8% in October compared with the same period in 2009.

Airport spokeswoman Jenny Wedge attributed the declines to Virgin America ending its service in May and Continental Airlines temporarily halting its Hawaii flights in September.

Virgin had five daily flights to San Francisco, and Continental had one daily flight to Honolulu, and another to Maui.

Some of the Continental flights started up again in November and they will all resume again later this month.

But with Air Canada ending its service to Toronto on Oct. 29, the airport may still show a decline in passengers when November statistics are released.

In October, about 732,000 passengers passed through the terminals, compared with 770,000 in October 2009. Thus far in 2010, 7.3 million passengers have traveled through JWA, down less than 1% from the same period in 2009.

—Mike Reicher