The Naples (Fla.) Airport Authority (NAA) has rankled more than its share of business aviation devotees–most prominently with its dogfight with the FAA over a controversial ban on Stage 2 aircraft at Naples Municipal Airport. Legal action over the ban represents only one folder in NAA’s lawyers’ briefcase. Jet 1 Center, an airport tenant, has filed suit for breach of contract regarding its rights to pump fuel to its based tenants–a contractual right it claims was unfairly rescinded when the NAA changed the airport minimum standards document. The NAA itself operates a fuel concession on the airport and is now the sole supplier of fuel. Jet 1 general manager Jeff Ellston submitted a letter to a local newspaper chastising the NAA for inappropriately exercising its rights to be the sole fuel supplier on the field.
There is a federal provision that exempts municipalities (cities, counties, states and so on) from antitrust laws regarding competition on an airport. Though an airport authority cannot grant exclusive rights to pump fuel to a third party, it can assume exclusive rights on its own under the terms of a federal provision known as “proprietary exclusive” rights.
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