JSX Air sues Santa Ana, CA airport for discrimination

JSX Air (XE, Dallas Love Field) has filed a lawsuit in the Central District Court-Southern Division against Orange County, CA, the owner of Santa Ana, CA airport, and Airport Director Barry Rondinella to prevent them from allegedly attempting to ban the carrier from the aerodrome. JSX Air alleged that on November 19, the airport informed it that it would no longer be allowed to operate from Santa Ana airport. This followed the airport’s decision to alter the terms of leases with two fixed-base operators, Clay Lacy Aviation (CLY, Van Nuys) and Aviation Consultants (CVD, Manchester, NH) d/b/a ACI Jet, for 35 years starting on January 1, 2021. The new terms prohibit FBOs from subleasing space in their respective facilities for the provision of scheduled flights. JSX Air subleases space from Aviation Consultants. The public charter specialist alleged that the new rules were adopted with no justification and that the airport “has acknowledged, several times to several different people,” that they were meant to exclude JSX Air from Santa Ana. “[The airport operator’s] recent termination of JSX existing service at [the airport] will cause JSX, its customers, and the general public irreparable harm and is illegal, patently unconstitutional, and anti-competitive,” Chief Executive Alex Wilcox said in a statement. In the lawsuit itself, the carrier underlined that just days before the notice of termination sent to JSX Air, Santa Ana airport welcomes the decisions of Spirit Airlines and Allegiant Air to launch services to Oakland, Las Vegas McCarran, and Reno/Tahoe – all of which are currently served by JSX Air. “In other words, Defendants discriminatorily chose to terminate JSX’s access to the Airport in favour of two large airlines who plan to provide more of the same type of inconvenient, regularly scheduled service already available, while eliminating JSX’s unique rates, routes, and services not otherwise available at the Airport,” the airline said. The plaintiff is seeking to restore the earlier rules governing access to FBO facilities at Santa Ana. The airport operator refused to comment on the ongoing litigation.