Sunday, 21 August 2011 06:50

Terminal C opens Nov. 14: The new terminal will feature customs and immigration facilities that can be used for international flights in the future. For now, Southwest and Frontier will anchor the facility. An open house will be held before the first flights.

GARY A. WARNER / Register Travel Editor

The new Terminal C at John Wayne Airport will open Nov. 14, and the public is invited to an open house Nov. 13.

It's the centerpiece of the Airport Improvement Program that includes expanded parking and facilities.

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Monday, 11 July 2011 10:08

By GARY A. WARNER / Register Travel Editor

John Wayne Airport has introduced a ticketless parking option – that's tickets as in the pieces of paper you get from the machine, not the ones that the sheriff's give you if you do something illegal.

The PARCS system, a handy acronym for Parking Access and Revenue Control, made its debut July 7 in Parking Structure A2. It will eventually expand to all airport lots.

A paperless parking system has been introduced at John Wayne Airport. Drivers can uses their credit card to get in and out of the garage without bothering with a paper ticket and paying attendants.

With the system, drivers can pay for parking two ways:

First, visitors can still get a paper ticket when they enter the garage. Upon exiting, they can drive to a booth where an attendant will total the charges. The driver can then pay by cash or credit card.

Under the new PARCS option, there is no ticket. A driver would swipe their card through a reader when entering the structure. The time will be logged. When the driver returns to his vehicle, he will exit through the PARCS lane and swipe the same card again. A readout of the price will be shown and the amount automatically charged to the credit card. A paper receipt will be available.

Parking Structures A1, B2 and C will begin using PARCS later this year. John Wayne Airport also plans on installing pay-on-foot stations, where drivers can pay their fee and avoid the longer exit lines. The pay-on-foot system will make its first appearance in Parking Structure C. The airport also plans to install digital displays outside of the lots showing how many empty spaces there are on each level.

Airport officials said the new system eventually will speed up and streamline the payment. However, they expect there will be delays at first as drivers unfamiliar with the options get acquainted with the system.

Reprint From the Orange County Register - July 7, 2011

Friday, 25 February 2011 10:56

By Sarah Peters, sarah.peters@latimes.com

The John Wayne Airport project will have six new passenger gates and two commuter terminals.

JOHN WAYNE AIRPORT — The barrel-vaulted ceilings of the new terminal at John Wayne Airport were nearing completion this week, as construction crews entered the final stretch of an almost five-year airport improvement project, an airport spokeswoman said.

Terminal C will duplicate the look given to Terminals A and B, which were built at JWA almost 20 years ago. It will incorporate natural stone, neutral colors and the same vaulted ceilings, as much as new building codes allow, said project manager Khatchig Tchapadarian, of McCarthy Building Companies.

Tchapadarian and other airport officials took Orange County reporters on a tour of the construction site Thursday.

The $195.9-million project is on time, despite a few weeks of delay caused by winter rains, and is expected to be completed by November, he said.

"Building a project like this is completely different than a normal office building or residential building," Tchapadarian said. "It's totally unique in that there are lots of little bits and pieces to get to the end result."

When finished, more than 2,100 metal panels and 1,080 cubic yards will go into creating the terminal's roof, according to a press release.

The three-level terminal will feature six new commercial passenger gates and two new permanent commuter terminals, which will replace the temporary commuter trailers in use, said JWA spokeswoman Jenny Wedge.

The new gates will house Frontier and Southwest airlines, which now operate out of Terminal B.

The move of the two airlines will ease crowding at Terminal B, which serves 40% to 60% of JWA's fliers annually, Wedge said.

The airport also hopes to attract two new airline carriers with Horizon Air, a division of Alaska Airlines, as one possibility, she said.

"The importance of this project is that it will give JWA and Orange County fliers more options and more destinations," Tchapadarian said. "There will be much more flexibility."

With the project's completion, JWA will serve up to, but not exceed, 10.8 million passengers, Wedge said.

Other features of the new terminal include new security screening checkpoints, baggage carousels and new vendors for concessions, gifts, newsstands and food — including the Anaheim Ducks Slapshot Bar & Grill, the airport's first bar overlooking the airfield.

More than 2,000 parking spaces are also slated to be made available when Terminal C opens.

Monday, 23 August 2010 00:00

Airport 'improvement' includes three-level facility with six more gates, concession stands and checkpoints.

John Wayne's brim got a little bit larger this month when developers completed the roof of the airport's new terminal, officials involved in the project announced Friday.

Construction crews from McCarthy Building Cos. on Aug. 2 laid down the last piece of structural steel on JWA's Terminal C, a new 280,000-square foot, three-level facility with six more gates for commercial airliners.

Crews began constructing the walkway connecting the terminal to Terminal B in May. Dubbed an airport "improvement" instead of expansion, the airport's remodeling costs about $540 million and includes more than just the new terminal. Construction crews are upgrading and renovating the airport's existing terminals to the tune of $102.3 million.

The airport expects to serve more than 10.8 million passengers between January 2011 and December 2015.

Terminal C's construction costs $195.9 million. There will also be three more baggage carousels, concession stands and additional security checkpoints for domestic and international flights.

August 21, 2010|By Joseph Serna, joseph.serna@latimes.com