NBAA and AOPA are urging the FAA to halt the “dismantling” of California's Santa Monica Airport (SMO). Both associations late last week wrote the agency, saying urgent action is necessary to prevent the city of Santa Monica from driving away the businesses on the airport as city officials there attempt to close it.
Their calls come as the city has issued eviction notices to the two FBOs on the airport, Atlantic Aviation and American Flyers, and is pushing off the local restaurant there, Typhoon, by tripling the rent “and making business conditions so difficult that it has become impossible to carry on without incurring financial ruin,” according to the restaurant.
The FAA has opened an investigation into the city's actions and has issued a lengthy list of detailed demands to the city for information surrounding its plans for services at the airport. The city has not yet enforced the eviction notices—which had an October 15 deadline. According to a local news report, the city has extended the eviction notices until November 4 and is expected to discuss plans to run services during the next city council meeting.
In his letter to the FAA, NBAA president and CEO Ed Bolen praised the FAA’s involvement but warned of "an urgent need for further, stricter action” to put a stop to “the city’s ongoing, self-described ‘strangulation’ strategy for SMO.” While the city is facing multiple legal and administrative challenges to its actions, he noted, “The city has not stopped—and indeed, has accelerated—its efforts to restrict aeronautical uses of SMO."
Bolen expressed further concern that if the agency does not take immediate steps, “there is a significant risk that...any ultimate victory will be pyrrhic, because in the meantime, the city will succeed in withering away the services available at the airport, and along with them its aeronautical user base.”
AOPA president and CEO Mark Baker echoed those sentiments. “The city of Santa Monica must be held accountable as it continues, unabated, to destroy this vibrant and iconic airport, which clearly does not meet the intent of their federal grant assurances,” Baker said. “What is occurring at Santa Monica will have far-reaching consequences throughout the U.S. if the FAA allows this to continue.”