The Peachtree City Airport Authority hopes to avoid a trial in a lawsuit over an airport access agreement that it signed in 1991 with a company for a now-defunct building adjacent to Falcon Field.

The suit, filed in February by Hunting Aircraft, claims that the authority must approve the sale and assignment of the access rights to a company wishing to purchase the property: Chippewa Aerospace of Myrtle Beach, S.C.

The authority contends, however, that the access agreement does not require the authority to approve the transfer and thus the case should be dismissed.
The authority has the “unconstrained authority to decline consent to Hunting’s proposed assignment of its rights under the lease for any or no reason at all,” the authority claimed in recent legal filings. Also, the authority claims the easement to access the airport does not run with the land.

Airport officials contend the large, mothballed Hunting Aircraft building can be sold without the airport access agreement. Hunting officials claim that drastically reduces the market value of the parcel.

Hunting Aircraft is asking the court to void the clause of the contract requiring the airport authority’s approval and to rule that the authority violated the agreement and failed to act in good faith. If the clause isn’t voided by the court, Hunting is seeking damages of up to $2 million.

The site in question is actually two separate parcels totaling more than 12 acres.

Specifically, Hunting’s lawsuit accuses the authority of trying to duck the existing “through the fence” contract to avoid a stipulation that caps the increase of fees for the property at 10 percent each year.

According to the contract, if the authority does not consent to any sale or lease of the property, Hunting can be ruled in default of the contract, allowing the authority to immediately terminate the airport access agreement and may even barricade the access point if necessary.

The current agreement with Hunting and the authority runs through 2015 and can be renewed through 2040, the suit indicates. The agreement calls for the authority to be paid certain fees, including 2 percent of gross receipts and 5 cents per gallon of fuel delivered to the site in addition to a per-aircraft charge varying from $600 to $2,400 for each plane “regularly based” on the property by being present seven or more days each year.

Hunting has not operated on the site since 1999. But Chippewa Aerospace Inc. wants to purchase the property and relocate its corporate headquarters to Peachtree City, which would employ 50 people in the first two years of operation, the suit states.

The authority already won the first round in the lawsuit when it successfully argued for a protective order to avoid pending depositions and other discovery proceedings until the authority’s motion to dismiss the case could be heard.