Location tied up in lawsuit over access agreement

There’s a holdup in Chick-fil-A’s plan to locate its corporate jets to a hangar adjacent to Falcon Field in Peachtree City.

The plan needs approval from the Peachtree City Airport Authority, which tabled the matter Thursday night, citing a pending lawsuit filed by the current property owner, Hunting Aviation.

In that suit, Hunting claims the authority withheld a similar approval from another company that wanted to buy the site earlier this year.

Because of that lawsuit, the authority voted Thursday to put all potential airport access agreements on hold until the litigation is resolved, said authority attorney Simon Bloom.

Chick-fil-A wants to purchase the long-vacant hangar facility from Hunting, which once performed aircraft maintenance at the site. The only thing standing in the way from a closing on the sale is the authority’s approval to reassign the Hunting airport access agreement to Chick-fil-A, according to Hunting attorney David Monde.

Monde claims the authority is trying to force a new contract with Chick-fil-A at a higher price than the existing Hunting contract, which expires in 2016 and can be renewed for another 25 years. Monde said the authority is in violation of a good faith negotiation required by a recent ruling of the Georgia Court of Appeals in the pending case.

Bloom countered that the authority is not trying to force Hunting to re-negotiate the deal for more favorable terms and it has negotiated in good faith.

The authority had a legitimate reason to deny the previous Hunting request, Bloom said, adding that he was concerned that the current deal for Hunting involves Chick-fil-A leasing its space, which could cause a security issue because the airport would have no way of knowing whom those aircraft belonged to.

Bloom cautioned that the authority hasn’t yet vetted the Chick-fil-A request to determine any potential problems with assigning Hunting’s access rights to the fast food company.

Chick-fil-A has indicated that it does not want to sell fuel to the general public although it does want to purchase its own fuel instead of buying it from the authority. The authority is currently the only entity on the airport selling fuel, which contributes significantly to the airport’s bottom line financially, officials have said.

Monde said he offered to ask Hunting to drop the pending lawsuit if the authority were to approve assignment of the Hunting contract to Chick-fil-A pending the lawsuit’s dismissal. Bloom said that wouldn’t matter since the authority is petitioning the Georgia Supreme Court to review the appeals court ruling.

In light of Thursday’s authority meeting, Monde said Hunting may consider filing a second lawsuit against the authority in reference to the Chick-fil-A deal.

The authority’s lack of action affects Hunting’s property rights to sell the building for an aviation use, Monde has said. The authority claims that it has no control over whether the property is sold or not.

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