Airline to Offer John Wayne-N.Y. Nonstop Flights : Routes: America West will also offer direct trips between Orange County and Sacramento to fill a void left by USAir.

America West Airlines said Tuesday that it will begin flying nonstop between John Wayne Airport and New York’s John F. Kennedy Airport in May, the first direct flight offered by an airline between Orange County and the East Coast.

The Phoenix-based carrier will also begin offering four daily nonstops between Orange County and Sacramento at the same time, replacing the four round-trip flights USAir will cancel as it pulls out of Orange County May 1.

A spokesman for America West said introductory round-trip fares will cost $298 for the New York flight and $108 for the Sacramento flights. Tickets at those special prices must be purchased between April 1 and April 30.

Industry analysts said America West beat bigger airlines such as United and American to the punch on nonstop East Coast service because the major carriers find it more cost-effective to concentrate their efforts at large international airports.

Daniel A. Hersh, an aviation industry analyst with the Denver regional office of Kemper Securities Group, said that until recently there was no airplane that could use John Wayne Airport’s smaller runways and economically make a nonstop flight of that distance.

United spokesman Alan Wayne expressed surprise at America West’s announcement, and said United officials would certainly review the situation. But Wayne said United already offers seven daily nonstop flights to New York and Newark, N.J., from Los Angeles.

Currently, the farthest east a passenger can go on a nonstop flight from John Wayne Airport is to Chicago. America West will be using either a 130-seat Boeing 737-300 or a 175-seat Boeing 757 for the new flight, and apparently hopes to fill a demand from business travelers who don’t want to make the commute to LAX.

While the flight time to New York would be almost identical from Orange County or Los Angeles, local fliers could save an hour or more by using John Wayne Airport, said Kevin Martin, vice president of operations for Associated Travel Management, a Santa Ana firm specializing in corporate travel.

The trade-off, Johnson said, is that the planes America West will be using are smaller than the typical jets used on nonstop cross-country flights, “so it could be a long flight. . . .” he said.

America West’s jets make more sense on the Sacramento route, which has proven a difficult one for other carriers using large passenger jets. American Airlines canceled five daily flights to Sacramento from Orange County in 1989, claiming that they were not profitable, but later reinstated three of them when state politicians complained about lack of service to the capital from the state’s second largest county. With USAir’s pending withdrawal from Orange County, only American and America West will offer nonstop jet service to Sacramento.

America West operates from Orange County with seven daily flights to Phoenix, five to Las Vegas and eight to San Francisco. The new flights in May will boost its total daily schedule at John Wayne Airport to 25 departures.

The increased flight schedule for American West is part of a reshuffling of flights at the airport in the wake of USAir’s decision to cease operating from Orange County.

In announcing its withdrawal from the airport last month, USAir cited systemwide financial constraints and the high cost of operating the super-quiet but fuel-guzzling BAe-146 jets that it used to meet the tight noise restrictions at John Wayne Airport.