Jul. 12—WESTCHESTER — Three charter aircraft companies operating for years out of Westchester County Airport's private jet terminal have to use the main terminal and its TSA checkpoint, a judge has ruled.
Charter companies JSX Air, XO Global LLC and Blade Urban Air Mobility Inc. filed a complaint against Westchester County in March 2022 with the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, saying they should be able to use the private terminal even though their planes hold more than nine passengers, the Westchester County cutoff for charter airlines that sell tickets to the public at large. They said that the county law oversteps and that federal limits should trump local law.
They also charged that they had been singled out by the county by being forced to use the main terminal when comparable charter companies with larger planes can operate out of the private terminal.
A county law passed in 2004 and amended in 2005 requires charter airlines that sell more than nine seats to the public at large to fly out of the main terminal. Blade and XO Global argued they had been operating out of the private terminal since 2015 and that JSX Air began operating a 30-seat aircraft out of the private terminal in June 2020 without the airport requiring them to use the main terminal, make passengers go through a Transportation Security Administration checkpoint or sign a terminal use agreement that regulates when they can take off, among other things.
They were told through a Jan. 21, 2022, policy statement from the airport that they could no longer do so. They sued Westchester County, which has jurisdiction over the airport.
They wrote in their complaint that they "operate a federally approved style of flying that does not require customers to pass through the standard TSA checkpoints found at most large airports" and that forcing them to operate out of the main terminal would "effectively shut down their entire business operations."
"Indeed, at the core of Plaintiffs' business models is that customers can forego crowded terminals, long lines and TSA security checkpoints," the complaint states.
The companies also claimed that the county singled them out by requiring them to use the main terminal, targeted them and was "treating them differently from other similarly situated carriers," according to the suit.
The county argued that having a nine seat limit for planes to use the private jet terminal has been an aviation standard since the 1970s and denied they were treating the three charter companies differently from comparable services.
According to the court's opinion, handed down July 1 and siding with Westchester County, the charterers did not prove any of their claims. The federal vs state argument was dismissed because the airport has the right to set its own safety and operational limits, the court ruled. The charter airlines named by the three companies as being comparable were not, the judge wrote.
"Plaintiffs' failure to produce any evidence of an adequate comparator constitutes a failure of proof and their approach here is insufficient to create a genuine issue of material fact," read the opinion written by United States District Judge Philip M. Halpern.
John Nonna, Westchester County Attorney, said the ruling meant the airport "could enforce our terminal use regulations."
"The judge's opinion was very well reasoned in concluding that our county's terminal use regulations were in compliance with federal law and not in violation of federal law," Nonna said.
JSX said in a statement that it "will be challenging the opinion on appeal."
Nonna said the county will oppose the appeal.
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