The fight over Santa Monica Airport continues. This week, Atlantic Aviation, an FBO operating at the embattled airport, filed a Part 16 complaint with the FAA against the city of Santa Monica.
The complaint documents a long history of the city’s efforts to reduce aircraft services and eventually close the historic airport.
In March, the Santa Monica City Council adopted a policy that nearly doubled Atlantic Aviation’s rent without providing a long-term lease agreement, the complaint states. Since then, the FBO has been renting its space from the city on a month-to-month basis.
Atlantic Aviation, which describes itself as the only full-service FBO at Santa Monica Airport and employs 30 people, requests that the FAA issue an order for the city to negotiate a long-term lease renewal at competitive rates and maintain the full range of FBO services at the airport.
Atlantic Aviation asked the FAA to expedite its complaint because “the city’s newly-enacted FBO policy directs the city manager to serve [Atlantic Aviation] with a notice of eviction on September 15, 2016, or soon thereafter, and the city will take over [Atlantic Aviation’s] FBO as a proprietary operation by December 31, 2016. If the city is permitted to do either,” the complaint states, “[Atlantic Aviation] will be irreparably harmed.”
