Ontario sues LA over lack of cargo development

AERO Ontario, the developer of a long-proposed cargo hub at California’s Ontario Airport (US), is suing the city of Los Angeles for not developing airfreight trade at the regional airport. LA’s Board of Airport Commissioners runs Los Angeles World Airports (LAWA), which owns and manages, amongst others, both Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) and Ontario Airport.

Aero Ontario has spent six years and US$5 million on developing and marketing airfreight at Ontario, work that is says should have been equally shared with LAWA. Instead, it claims the board has been actively developing it at LAX instead, to the detriment of the other LAWA airports.

LAWA bought Ontario Airport in 1985 and Ontario itself claims it has done little to promote or develop the airport since. Since 2004, airfreight traffic has dropped every year from 605,211 tons to 390,932 tons at the end of 2009.

LAWA’s executive director, Gina Marie Lindsey, denied the charges. “Continuing to pursue a strategy that actively pushes traffic away from the city of Los Angeles and into other jurisdictions could be viewed as a little self-destructive.”

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