The Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association (AOPA) and the National Business Aviation Association (NBAA) have jointly filed a motion to intervene in a case before the Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit regarding the continuing operation of Santa Monica Municipal Airport in Southern California.
The motion filed Sept. 26, 2016, would allow the associations to participate as principal parties to the case, which will review the FAA’s final decision issued Aug. 15.
That decision found that the City of Santa Monica remains under federal grant obligations until Aug. 27, 2023, and must keep the airport open and operating according to terms that the city agreed to when it accepted money from the federal government, including that the city make the airport available on reasonable terms and without undue discrimination at least until that time.
“By asking to intervene in this case, we’re really asking to continue to be involved in these issues as we have been from the beginning,” said Ken Mead, general counsel for AOPA. “The federal grant process allows airports all over the country to maintain, improve, and expand their facilities using taxpayer money. Those airports then have an obligation to continue to serve the public that has funded those airport projects. Allowing Santa Monica to circumvent its obligations would have adverse consequences at the airport and create an extremely dangerous precedent by jeopardizing the availability of federal funds for airports nationwide.”
In the request to intervene, AOPA and NBAA note that they have “a substantial interest in the outcome of this petition” and “seek to protect those interests.”
Both AOPA and NBAA were complainants in the FAA administrative proceeding that resulted in the order that Santa Monica keep the airport open at least until 2023.
The associations also note that the airport is part of the integrated National Airspace System (NAS) and serves as a general aviation reliever in the busy Southern California airspace. Closing it, they warn, would not only affect those who use the airport for business and personal flying, but also would add congestion to already crowded airspace and set a dangerous precedent for airports nationwide that have accepted federal grant money for airport improvements and expansion.
The FAA is in control. Period. If the city interferes with airport ops then they will pay a bigger price than simply ticking down the clock and waiting like adults for their legal right to dispose of the airport.
NEVER FORGET MAYOR DALY AND MEIGS FIELD IN CHICAGO. WITH ALL OF THE ACTIONS WE HAVE SEEN FROM THIS CITY COUNCIL, DON’T PUT A SIMILAR ACT PAST THESE THUGS! ANYTHING SHORT OF KEEPING SMO OPEN SHOULD RESULT IN COSTING THIS CITY COUNCIL A LOT OF MONEY!!
Amelia Earhart, Poncho Barnes, Colleen Creden
All flew from historic Clover Field aka. Santa Monica airport.
I live directly under KSMO upwind and theLAX
downwind patterns. I am a recent 72 year old student pilot and a Santa Monica citizen.
I support Historic Santa Monica Airport. I urge everyone who has ever launched a paper airplane
To visit its airfield and the Santa Monica Museum of Flying.
The people running the city council like getting federal grant taxpayer money on behalf of the airport but want the airport to go away. I don’t think they have much ground to stand on in court but since when has the truth stood in the way of official confiscation and ruling by edict over the past 8 years?
How about declaring the airport a National Historic Site, Monument to the history of aviation, etc, and then maybe the anti-airport people will quit blowing the tax-payers money on legal fees. Better yet, if these people are so anti-airport, turn it into a Maximum Security Prison and house only the worst of the worst mass-murderers, sexual predators and terrorists. THAT should make em happy!