Story ID: 
Court Upholds Signature Dulles Verdict
By: Curt Epstein
Caption: A decision on Tuesday by the U.S.
Word Count: 189
A decision on Tuesday by the U.S. Court of Appeals affirmed a previous ruling by the U.S. District Court in the Eastern District of Virginia ordering Signature Flight Support sublessee Landow Aviation to cease and desist from acting as an FBO at Washington Dulles International Airport. Signature, which had granted a 19-acre sublease to Landow to build and operate the Dulles Jet Center (DJC) as a corporate hangar facility for private aircraft, claimed that Landow went beyond the scope of the agreement when it began offering FBO services to Signature’s clients and transient aircraft customers. Signature testified last year that eight to 10 transient aircraft per day were using DJC in late 2008 and early 2009. According to the initial judicial opinion, DJC advertised itself as an FBO and, in an effort to offer fuel service of its own, even attempted to persuade the airport’s management that Signature was providing inadequate fuel service. In February 2010, DJC suffered a massive hangar collapse caused by heavy snow that resulted in hundreds of millions of dollars in repair and replacement claims for the 14 business aircraft housed inside.