The taxpayers pay. OC taxpayers don't need two airports, with one sitting nearly empty or shut down. Air Line Pilots Association objects to crowded airspace for safety reasons. Former DOT official predicts a Denver-style shutdown of John Wayne if El Toro is approved. National Air Traffic Controllers union objects to two airport system.
County goes ahead anyway, with a political two-airport plan.
Two airports within seven nautical miles poses significant problems for air traffic. Overlapping airspace boundaries, crossing instrument approach and departure procedures and insufficient airspace capacity to manage a large volume or mix of heavy turbo-jet operations and general aviation demand would surely result in gross inefficiencies at both airports and would serve no useful purpose to the National Airspace System. Schiavo pointed out that the federal government ordered the closing of Denver's Stapleton Airport on the day that the new Denver International Airport opened. The FAA could do the same thing to John Wayne as a condition of approving El Toro Airport. The county continues to pour money into two-airport planning, without an official FAA ruling on whether the project will be approved.