Airport Litigation

NextGen Flight Procedures:  Represented multiple governmental clients seeking to address community concerns over new federal flight procedures, including through litigation and by participating in the federal environmental review process. We represented the City of Phoenix in precedent-setting litigation requiring the FAA to redesign flight procedures for arriving and departing flights at Sky Harbor International Airport and obtained similar results in Los Angeles and in the Seattle area. We obtained a rare writ of mandamus from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit on behalf of the City of Los Angeles, requiring the FAA to change flight procedures in response to the court’s earlier finding that the FAA had violated the National Environmental Policy Act when adopting those new procedures.

Rental Car Bankruptcies:  Represented two consortia with a total of 21 airports in the Hertz and Advantage rental car bankruptcies. In both cases, we successfully protected customer facility charges (CFCs) as property of the airport sponsors to be held in trust by the rental car companies, rather than as assets of the debtor rental car companies themselves. We were able to reach satisfactory settlements on a range of issues including the assumption and assignment of leases and agreements, collecting pre- and post-petition obligations and resolving unsecured claims. Kaplan Kirsch has represented many other airport sponsors in smaller airline and airport-industry bankruptcies in recent  decades.

City of Chicago Inverse Condemnation Litigation:  We defended the City of Chicago in state court against claims for inverse condemnation and nuisance based on noise and vibrations from a new runway at O’Hare International Airport. After substantially narrowing the case through motions to dismiss and taking extensive discovery from all plaintiffs, we obtained summary judgment dismissing the case on statute-of-limitations grounds, a dismissal upheld on appeal.

Federal Contract Towers Litigation: Successfully led a coalition of more than 40 small commercial-service airports in litigation and an aggressive legislative effort to reinstate funding for federal contract air traffic control towers after federal sequestration cuts would have eliminated towers at 250 airports nationwide. We filed lawsuits in multiple federal courts of appeals, assisted in developing a public communications strategy and helped lead—with active involvement by the American Association of Airport Executives and state aviation groups—a legislative lobbying and communications strategy before Congress. The strategy succeeded and the FAA restored funding within days after we filed the opening brief in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.

Airspace Protection Litigation: Represented clients in Las Vegas and Barnstable, Massachusetts challenging FAA Determinations of No Hazard for two wind-turbine projects under FAR Part 77. In Las Vegas, a proposed wind turbine project would have interfered with the operation of the proposed Ivanpah Airport. We challenged the FAA’s Determination of No Hazard both in administrative proceedings and in the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, which found that the FAA had not adequately examined the impact of the turbines on the airport. In Barnstable we challenged a Determination of No Hazard for the proposed Cape Wind turbine project in Nantucket Sound and the D.C. Circuit found that the FAA had failed to adequately evaluate the impact of the turbines on aircraft using Barnstable Municipal Airport. Although the Court upheld the FAA’s decision following remand, the project was ultimately not built.