SAN DIEGO — A San Diego County Superior Court judge denied a motion for a preliminary injunction to stop service from American Airlines at McClellan-Palomar Airport on Friday.
Citizens for a Friendly Airport filed the lawsuit on Jan. 27 to stop the lease agreement between the county and American Airlines, which the Board of Supervisors approved in early January. The judge, Gregory Pollack, was unmoved by CF4A’s arguments and said the county and American Airlines would suffer “irreparable harm” since contracts have been signed, jobs and tickets sold, and a negative impact financial impact would be suffered by the county of more than $600,000, which American Airlines will pay to use McClellan-Palomar Airport.
American Airlines started service on Feb. 13 with two daily flights to Phoenix.
The county, whose attorney’s name was inaudible, argued CF4A completely changed the scope of the lawsuit from January, saying the injunction now wanted to cease all commercial operations compared to its initial complaint under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). The county’s attorney said the Superior Court was the wrong venue, CF4A provided no evidence of harm and said the organization waited too long and should have taken up the issue during its first lawsuit in 2018.
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The county also said the plaintiffs had plenty of notice regarding the county’s plans, which included the 2018 lawsuit (settled in 2021), along with the Master Plan Update, which called for commercial service, and the announcement of American Airlines’ service in July, yet did nothing.
“Their position now is they want a complete ban on commercial service,” the county told Pollack. “This is the first time they’ve said this. They’ve waived that argument. From an irreparable harm standard, the plaintiffs haven’t produced a single piece of evidence.”
CF4A’s attorney Corey Briggs argued the deal between the county and the county’s deal with American Airlines also violated Conditional Use Permit 172 between the city of Carlsbad and the county. The CUP was issued in 1980 and the attorneys and Pollack argued about its true intention — whether the city and county agreed about commercial service — for several minutes.
