YOUNGSTOWN
Aerodynamics Inc., the airline that offered daily flights between the Youngstown-Warren Regional Airport and Chicago last summer, denies that it misled airport officials.
In an answer and counterclaim to a lawsuit the airport filed in April, ADI said it did not mislead airport officials as to whether it had an interline agreement with United Airlines that would have made it easy for passengers to receive their baggage when they changed planes.
ADI alleges that airport officials were “on notice that ADI had no interline agreements in place itself and was, instead, working towards a hosting agreement with a third-party carrier.”
ADI added that ADI notified the Western Reserve Port Authority on Aug. 18, a day after the port authority terminated its agreement with ADI, that the contract between ADI and the port authority did not require ADI to have any interline agreements.
The port authority runs the airport.
The port authority said in a lawsuit it filed in Trumbull County Common Pleas Court in April that ADI made false representations orally and in writing to airport officials that it had an interline agreement with United Airlines and American Airlines.
The agreement would have caused American and United to handle baggage for ADI and for ADI to handle baggage for American and United flights, according to the lawsuit.
The port authority demanded in the lawsuit that ADI repay $361,714 that the port authority paid ADI as a revenue guarantee for flights from July 1 through late August.
A revenue guarantee ensures that an airline will be profitable during the start-up phase of an airline service.
Two-thirds of the money the port authority paid to ADI came from a $780,000 U.S. Department of Transportation Small Community Air Service Development Program grant.
Another $420,000 came from hotel-motel taxes paid in Mahoning and Trumbull counties.
ADI’s countersuit demands $294,221, the amount ADI billed the port authority Aug. 30 but never received, the suit says.
- Original article can be found here: http://www.vindy.com
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