JSX files lawsuit against Orange County, John Wayne Airport after operation rights terminated

Flight operator JSX filed a lawsuit against Orange County and John Wayne Airport, alleging that the airport failed to provide any accommodations for the public charter air carrier to operate.

The complaint, filed in U.S. District Court on Monday, states that the company received two letters from the airport and airport director Barry Rondinella on Nov. 19 in which the county “refused to offer any accommodations” to the company and would be terminating the company’s authority to operate from the airport on Jan. 1.

The lawsuit alleges that the airport “discriminatorily chose to terminate JSX’s access to the airport in favor of two large airlines [Spirit and Allegiant Airlines] who plan to provide more of the same type of inconvenient, regularly scheduled service already available.”

The two airlines were announced to have joined John Wayne Airport in November, with routes servicing Oakland, Las Vegas and Reno — three routes that JSX said it already serves from the airport.

JSX and its parent company, JetSuiteX, Inc., are seeking declaratory and injunctive relief to continue using John Wayne Airport.

The company also filed a motion for a temporary restraining order to maintain current operations until the case can be heard in court.

“I am hopeful that the Board [of Supervisors] will see that they have been led astray and will take quick corrective action to avoid a protracted legal battle that, among other things, potentially calls into question the continued viability of the JWA Access Plan and certain other requisite conditions to federal entitlements,” JSX chief executive officer Alex Wilcox said in a statement.

Wilcox said in an interview Tuesday that the company is filing the lawsuit to preserve its right to operate at a federally funded airport and the rights of its customers to choose and fly safely.

“We’re filing because we have been wronged. We’re the little guy and it seems as though actions are being taken in favor of the status quo and major air carriers,” said Wilcox, adding that the issue at hand is not about the noise of JSX’s planes.

Deanne Thompson, a spokeswoman for the airport, said Tuesday that the county is reviewing the lawsuit and its allegations. She said the county has no comment at this time.

The complaint states that the company made repeated requests for accommodation, but that the county has refused to grant JSX access to John Wayne Airport beyond the Jan. 1 date. It alleges Rondinella and the county intentionally tried to ban the company from operating routes or services out of the airport.

According to the lawsuit, Rondinella was authorized to begin negotiating new fixed base operator leases in the summer of this year and that, since 2018, JSX uses FBOs or its own leaseholds to pick up and drop off customers. The term refers to organizations allowed by an airport authority to operate at that airport and provide fuel or a place for customers to board flights.

The complaint alleges that Rondinella instructed bidders for the leases to agree to lease terms that were “intentionally drafted” to restrict access for the air carrier to John Wayne Airport.

Attorneys said that the language in the new lease agreements for fixed-base operators do not directly name the company, but argue that the drafted language bars operation of regularly scheduled commercial operators, which JSX is considered, from them.

The complaint states that JSX’s certification status, security plan and business model require it to drop off and pick up its customers at locations throughout the airport that are not security identification display areas. Wilcox said that JSX can use terminal buildings if there are non-SIDA areas cordoned off and made available, which he said the airport was not offering as a possibility.

“All we’re asking for is either let us use FBOs as we do today or make one of those corridors in the main terminals and we’ll go there,” Wilcox said.

“The regulatory distinction between the large airlines and JSX is key to understanding the subtle but intentional discrimination inherent in the restriction, which prevents JSX from accessing JWA,” the complaint reads. “The major carriers ... never operated out of the FBOs, have always operated out of the terminal and are federally prohibited from utilizing the FBOs.”

“Therefore, by drafting the leases, which apply only to the FBOs, in this manner, the county and Rondinella intentionally targeted the only ‘regularly scheduled commercial user’ that had operated out of the FBOs — JSX — from continuing to operate out of the FBOs,” attorneys argue in the complaint.

The case is assigned to U.S. District Court Judge Josephine Staton.

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