Mon, Mar 08, 2010
Discrimination Suits Continue As Opa-Locka Flightline Shuts
Down
Opa-Locka Flightline, LLC, (OLF)
recently announced it will be ceasing operations at the Opa-Locka
Executive Airport (KOLF) on Wednesday, March 31, 2010. The
closure comes after several years of struggles with airport
developers and legal battles over alleged discrimination.
"Most of you are aware that even though our pending litigation
against Miami-Dade County and AA Acquisitions (Orion Jet Center) is
proceeding through the court system," wrote OLF managing partner
Tony Robinson in a March 3 letter announcing the closure.
"Unfortunately our five-year temporary lease at the airport will
expire on April 1, 2010."
As
ANN reported earlier, OLF is one of several
tenants at Opa-Locka Executive Airport claiming economic
discrimination by Miami-Dade County and its contracted developer
for the airport, AA Acquisitions (AAA). OLF alleges
that agreements made for long-term lease deals were ignored by AAA
in favor of higher prices and shorter lease terms.
OLF also reportedly
caught AAA staff intentionally damaging their
fuel berm, an act for which the developer was eventually ordered to
pay over $4,000 by a Dade County Court. Immediately following
the fuel berm incident AAA opened Orion Jet Center, a competing FBO
at Opa-Locka.
"The county told us to negotiate an agreement with a company
that was now our competitor, which does not make any business
sense," Robinson commented on the conflict of interest to the South
Florida Times.
Robinson ended his letter with a look to the future saying, "We
truly appreciate your support during the last few years and we look
forward to serving you again in the near future once we have
successfully concluded our case."
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