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Choose Our Hotel by John Wayne Airport in Orange County

Portola Inn & Suites Buena Park / Anaheim hotel is located just miles from John Wayne Airport which is in an unincorporated area in Orange County, California, with its mailing address in the city of Santa Ana, which is also the county seat. The main entrance to the airport is off of MacArthur Blvd in Irvine, the city that abuts the airport from the north and east. Newport Beach and Costa Mesa form the southern and western boundaries, respectively, together with a small unincorporated area along the Coronoa del Mar (73) Freeway. Santa Ana lies just north, not actually touching the airport directly. Originally named Orange County Airport, the county Board of Supervisors renamed it in 1979 to honor the actor John Wayne, who resided in neighboring Newport Beach and died that year. It also became the first airport to be named after an entertainer.

The main runway, at 5,701 feet (1,738 m), is one of the shortest of any major airport in the United States, resulting in most passenger aircraft operating from the airport to be no larger than the Boeing 757. However, some larger cargo aircraft, such as the FedEx A310/300, fly from SNA. Some gates are built to handle planes up to the size of a Boeing 767, which can operate with payload/fuel load restrictions. No wide-body passenger aircraft are currently in scheduled service at the airport.

When traveling to the Southern California area, our hotel's near Orange County's John Wayne Airport is your best choice for comfortable and convenient accommodations.

Anaheim Corporate Lodging and Business Travel

John Wayne Airport is the sole commercial airport within Orange County and just minutes from Portola Inn & Suites hotel in Anaheim / Buena Park. General aviation operations outnumber commercial operations and several facilities at the airport serve the general aviation and corporate aviation community. The other general aviation airport within the county is Fullerton Municipal Airport. Other commercial airports within close proximity are Long Beach Airport, followed by Los Angeles International Airport and LA/Ontario International Airport. In 2008, John Wayne Airport was the second busiest airport in the area (by passenger count) with almost 9 million total passengers. With keeping that in mind, Portola Inn & Suites hotel now offers special packages for business travelers and family travelers to meet all of your Anaheim corporate lodging needs.

The largest airlines at John Wayne Airport are Southwest Airlines, United Airlines, American Airlines, and Alaska Airlines. John Wayne Airport is 14 miles (23 km) from Orange County's signature attraction - the Disneyland Resort. By contrast, Los Angeles International Airport is 35 miles (56 km) from Disneyland.

The John Wayne Airport's History

A statue of the airport's namesake welcomes passengers passing through the arrivals area on the lower level. The first airstrip on the grounds was constructed in 1923, when Eddie Martin founded a flying school on land owned by the Irvine Company. It was purchased through a land swap by the County of Orange in 1939 and remains under the County's ownership and management.

After serving as a military base during World War II, it was returned by the federal government to the County with the stipulation that it remain open to all kinds of aviation uses.

During the 1950s the only airline flights were Bonanza's few flights between Los Angeles and Phoenix, via San Diego. In 1963 Bonanza started nonstop F27s to Phoenix, and to Las Vegas in 1965; in 1967 Air California started Electras nonstop to San Francisco, 48 flights a week each way. The first scheduled jet flights were Bonanza DC-9s later in 1967.

In 1967, the 22,000-square-foot (2,000 m2) Eddie Martin Terminal was constructed to accommodate 400,000 annual passengers. Remodeling added two passenger holding areas in 1974, a new baggage claim area in 1980 and a terminal annex building in 1982, bringing the facility to 29,000 square feet (2,700 m2).

Nonstop flights reached Salt Lake City in 1976-77 (Hughes DC9s), Denver in 1982 (Frontier MD80s), Dallas-FtWorth in 1983 (American MD80s), Chicago in 1986 (AirCal 737-300s), and New York Kennedy in 1991 (America West 757s).

After the Orange County Airport was renamed the John Wayne Airport in 1979, Arrival and Departure Monitors in airports throughout the country continued to identify the airport as Orange County, which is the nickname for the OMB Metropolitan Designation, Santa Ana-Anaheim-Irvine, California. To commemorate the Airport's namesake, the John Wayne Associates commissioned sculptor Robert Summers to create nine-foot bronze statue of "the Duke." The nine-foot statue, created at Hoka Hey Foundry in Dublin, Texas, was dedicated to the County on November 4, 1982. Today, the bronze statue is located in the Thomas F. Riley Terminal on the Arrival Level.

In 1990, the Thomas F. Riley Terminal opened to the public. The aging 29,000-square-foot (2,700 m2) Eddie Martin Terminal was replaced with a modern 337,900-square-foot (31,390 m2) facility. The new facility included 14 loading bridges, four baggage carousels, wide open spaces and distinct roadside arrival and departure levels. In 1994, the then-unused Eddie Martin Terminal was then demolished.

In the late 1990s and early 2000s, a new, larger airport was proposed for the nearby site of the then recently closed El Toro Marine Corps Air Station. However, after a series of political battles, combined with significant opposition from residents in the vicinity of El Toro, the proposal was defeated, and no new airport was built.

In 2004, Chris Norby, a member of the county Board of Supervisors, proposed changing the airport's name to The O.C. Airport, John Wayne Field, in light of the popularity of the TV series The O.C. He withdrew the idea after receiving negative publicity and angry responses from numerous local residents.

On March 31, 2008, Aloha Airlines, which began air service to the Hawaiian Islands in 2001, ended all of its passenger operations at the airport. This has left a void in air service, nonstop from SNA, to Hawaii, a popular tourist destination for Southern California residents.

As a result of Aloha Airline's pullout and fleet reductions within American Airlines, United Airlines, and Continental Airlines, the airport considered opening up two slots as of June 7, 2008.

According to Orange County's local newspaper, The Orange County Register, the top two candidates for the slots were Air Canada and Hawaiian Airlines. An Air Canada spokesperson said that the airline was not in a position at the time to make a decision. A Hawaiian Airlines spokesperson said that, although it had an interest in operating from John Wayne Airport, it was most likely that it would not take the slot since it was trying to concentrate on its routes from the nearby Los Angeles International Airport. Furthermore, Hawaiian Airlines primarily flies Boeing 767 aircraft, which the current airport facilities could only accommodate with payload/fuel load restrictions.

On April 29, 2009, Virgin America began service between San Francisco and Orange County. The service directly competed with both Southwest Airlines and United Express. The airline ended service to San Francisco 13 months later, on May 26, 2010, due to the desire to focus on other cities new to the airline.

On October 7, 2009, Continental Airlines announced it would begin daily service to Honolulu on March 7, 2010, and Maui using the Boeing 737-700. The services are currently operating on a seasonal basis.

On April 9, 2010, Air Canada began operating flights to Toronto-at that time the only international flights to and from Orange County. This service only lasted until October 29. After Air Canada terminated the route, WestJet announced plans to enter service to John Wayne Airport from Vancouver and Calgary starting on May 2, 2011.