Inland airport developer sues LA for hogging freight at LAX

THE declared intention of Los Angeles World Airports (LAWA) to spread air traffic across southern California has failed to materialise, says a law suit filed by troubled developer who invested US$6 million on the promise that cargo would be diverted from LAX to Ontario Airport, reports the Riverside Press-Enterprise.

Aero Ontario RFP, LLC, the developer of a long-ago proposed cargo hub at Ontario Airport, has sued the city of Los Angeles and the Board of Airport Commissioners, joining others, mainly the City of Ontario, that contend Los Angeles officials have ignored the inland airport in favour of boosting traffic at LAX and has sought out more air cargo tenants for LAWA-owned airports.

The inland airport's cargo shipments dropped 18.7 per cent between 2008 and 2009. Since 2004 when 605,211 tons of mail and freight were shipped, the number has dropped every year to 390,932 tons at the end of 2009. Ontario airport has also suffered passenger losses with traffic dropping 32.2 per cent since 2007.

Aero Ontario, affiliated with Annapolis, Maryland's Aeroterm, claims the agency indicated it would divert cargo traffic from its other airport, LAX. Instead, LAWA actively sought to keep it there or divert it to other LAWA-owned airports, said Aero.

After six years of negotiations, during which Aero Ontario said it spent more than $5 million on environmental studies and marketing efforts, the company signed a lease with the city of Los Angeles in 2008 to develop about a million square feet for international air cargo, forwarding and logistics operations. At that time, Aeroterm estimated it would finish the first of five phases on the project by late 2009, but construction never started.

Aero Ontario said it paid $1.5 million when it signed the lease and has since paid several thousand dollars in rent each month, and remained under the impression that Los Angeles World Airports would be a partner in marketing the project to prospective cargo tenants, pointing to language in the lease that the "parties expect to engage in cooperative efforts."
(Source:www.schednet.com)