County wins federal lawsuit mandating air carrier JSX use main HPN terminal
July 3, 2024 at 11:46 p.m.
JSX, the self-described “ public charter service” that currently sells up to 30 seats on Embraer jets which fly out of the Fixed Base Operator (FBO) side of Westchester County Airport (HPN), lost a lawsuit July 1 it filed in Federal District Court in White Plains against the County Government, which insisted its Terminal Use Protocols (TUP) demanded any air carrier selling more than nine seats on a scheduled flight use the Main Terminal.
In a heavily reasoned and annotated 28-page decision, Judge Philip M. Halpern cited “undisputed facts” in documenting the TUP’s history and reason for existence, the County’s legal right to insist that airlines selling over nine seats per plane adhere to the TUP, and providing what he hoped would be a definitive legal roadmap for his ruling to become permanent case law. Read Halpern’s Opinion and Order here: Charters Decision 7-01-24.pdf
In a terse e-mail comment for publication to the Westmore News, County Attorney John Nonna said:
“The court dismissed the charterers’ complaint claiming that the Terminal Use Regulations are pre-empted by federal law—the Airline Noise and Capacity Act (ANCA) and the Airline Deregulation Act (ADA) and he dismissed their equal protection claim. He dismissed all the claims in the complaint.”
Rye Brook resident Paul Noto, of the Rye-based law firm Dorf Nelson & Zauderer LLP, which represented JSX before Halpern, responded in a telephone interview:
“We received the decision and obviously we are very disappointed and disagree. We are exploring our options with our client, and I think an appeal is likely to the Second Circuit.
If we appeal, we would seek a continuation of a stipulation and order that the County would not enforce the TUP pending the appeal.”
When asked how long this legal process would drag out, Noto said: “We have no control over the court calendar and how long it would take for them to take up the appeal.”
“Our client loves Westchester County Airport,” added Noto. “They want to continue to operate and serve their customers out of the airport. They do very well. They have flights booked for the next several months. It’s a significant issue for them economically.”
Currently JSX is selling nonstop flights out of HPN to Florida FBO terminals in Boca Raton, Miami, Naples, and West Palm Beach. One big feature: customers skip TSA lines and crowded terminals.
The flights are comparatively priced to those of BermudAir, which as the Westmore News reported Sept. 23, 2023, adheres to the TUP and flies similar 30-seat jets out of the HPN main terminal nonstop to its home base in Bermuda.
Two similar business models with the same aircraft but different approaches to the TUP.
How it turns out is still a federal case.
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