Santa Monica city officials will allow local FBOs Atlantic Aviation and American Flyers to continue their operations. At least for now. The interim agreement stretches to November 4, a week and a half after an October 25 city council meeting in which the city will discuss a pending agreement with the FAA, the Los Angeles Times reported.
In September, the city sent eviction notices for Atlantic and American Flyers to vacate by October 15 and announced it would take over FBO services. At that point, the FAA launched an investigation to ensure that the city would comply with the obligations required to operate the airport. The city made it known that it would only offer biofuel for turboprop and jet aircraft and unleaded fuel for piston aircraft. The FAA noted that many airplanes are simply neither certified nor capable of burning such fuels.
According to the Los Angeles Times, Santa Monica’s senior adviser to the city manager on airport affairs, Nelson Hernandez, said the city would only offer the services required by the FAA. This would mean services such as the flight training currently offered by American Flyers would go away.
Most businesses on the field are operating on a month-to-month basis. The airport’s iconic restaurant, Typhoon, is closing on November 8, and Justice Aviation, a sizable flight school that had been at the field for decades, closed earlier this year. However, the airplanes formerly based at Justice have relocated to other flight schools on the field. And while the city continues to do all it can to shut down the historic airport, it will not legally be able to do so without the consent of the federal government, which is highly unlikely considering the airport’s vital role in serving not only the local citizens but people from all over the world.
