John Wayne Airport is an airport in unincorporated Orange County, California, with its mailing address in Santa Ana, hence the IATA code. Other nearby cities include Newport Beach, Costa Mesa, and Irvine. Originally named Orange County Airport, the county Board of Supervisors renamed it in 1979 to honor the actor John Wayne, who resided on Lido Island in nearby Newport Harbor and died that year.

The main runway, at , 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 widebody passenger aircraft are currently in scheduled service to the airport. Carriers operating from the airport must compensate for the very short runway by either limiting range, lowering fuel weight, or imposing aircraft weight restrictions as needed.

John Wayne Airport is the sole commercial airport within Orange County. Even with the presence of commercial airline operations, general aviation use is significant. 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 LA/Ontario International Airport and Los Angeles International Airport.

The most prominent airlines at John Wayne Airport are Southwest Airlines (23.3%), American Airlines (14.4%), and United Airlines (12.8%).

John Wayne Airport is from Orange County's signature attraction - the Disneyland Resort. By contrast, Los Angeles International Airport is from Disneyland.

A statue of the airport's namesake welcomes passengers passing through the arrivals area on the lower level.