GRAHAM WARWICK / WASHINGTON DC
Californian airport accuses Pacific Jet in row over breach of business jet restrictions
California's Van Nuys Airport has launched its first legal action under a controversial rule restricting operations of Stage 2 business jets. The lawsuit accuses charter company Pacific Jet of violating a non-addition rule designed to prevent operators based at the airport from adding Stage 2 aircraft.
While Stage 2 airliners are banned in the USA, Stage 2 business jets under 34,000kg (75,000lb) gross weight can continue to fly, but more airports are seeking ways to ban or restrict their operation. The US National Business Aviation Association is appealing against a Stage 2 ban at Florida's Naples Municipal Airport and is trying to stave off Congressional action that would allow Wyoming's Jackson Hole Airport to ban Stage 2 business jets.
Aviation groups challenged Van Nuys' non-addition rule, but lost in 2001 and the regulation took effect in January last year. The rule prevents local operators adding Stage 2 jets to their fleets by prohibiting aircraft that are not grandfathered from being based at the airport for more than 30 days in a calendar year. To be grandfathered, a Stage 2 business jet had to be based at Van Nuys for 90 days or more in 1999.
The lawsuit accuses Pacific Jet of repeated violations of the non-addition rule by basing four non-grandfathered Gulfstream IIs and a Learjet 28 at Van Nuys for a total of 967 days in 2002. The airport is seeking a three-year ban on the operator and more than $3 million in fines. "Pacific Jet has continued to violate the rule on Stage 2 jets," says the Los Angeles city attorney's office. "We settled one incident with a fine, but they have continued to violate the ordinance."
Pacific Jet, which is a subtenant of major Van Nuys leaseholder J+D Air, says it filed a court complaint against the airport in late June, accusing the city of wrongfully attempting to terminate its tenancy. The company says it will contest any move to ban it from operating at Van Nuys.
Source: Flight International
