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Federal Judge Backs Westchester, NY’s Controversial War on Air Travel – Can Kick Out JSX – View from the Wing

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Federal Judge Backs Westchester, NY’s Controversial War on Air Travel – Can Kick Out JSX – View from the Wing

Federal Judge Backs Westchester, NY’s Controversial War on Air Travel – Can Kick Out JSX

by Gary Leff

A federal judge has issued a ruling permitting Westchester County airport to limit flights out of private terminals by carriers that sell seats to the public.

Westchester County wishes it didn’t have an airport. However they can’t shut it down. They’ve taken federal grant money, so federal rules apply. Nonetheless they make it as tough to operate there as possible because of noise, and because to the area’s hedge fund managers making commercial air travel expensive and inaccessible means keeping undesirables away.

The Westchester County Executive, in office since 2018, has been hostile to any airport use. The County denied FBO operator Million Air the ability to construct a new terminal to which it was contractually entitled for reasons deemed not to be “reasonable as a matter of law.”

In 2022, Westchester sued Blade, JSX, and XO for selling flights with more than 9 seats while using private terminals at the airport.

  • The Westchester Airport’s Terminal Use Agreement requires commercial airlines to operate from that terminal.
  • Flights out of the terminal are subject to limits, the right to operate based on a lottery system, and passenger limits.
  • Blade and XO had been operating out of private terminals since 2015, not subject to the Terminal Use Agreement, and JSX began operating there in June 2020.

    The airport adopted a new policy in January 2022 that required these carriers to operate out of the main terminal, with TSA screening rather than handling their own screening according to TSA-approved procedures. (That would also make them subject to the lottery system, limiting their operations.)

    Two months later they sued, but entered into an agreement not to enforce their rule until they had obtained a court order from their suit (this allowed the airport to avoid a preliminary injunction against them, while the courts sort out whether these airport rules violate federal law).

    United States District Judge Philip M. Halpern, who was nominated to serve in the Southern District of New York by President Trump at the suggestion of Fox News commentator Jeanine Pirro (the former wife of Judge Halpern’s law firm partner who was convicted of tax fraud), issued a ruling saying that the airport could enforce its terminal use rules, arguing that the airport has latitude to set safety and operational limits. Ironically, at least one Trump family member is a JSX customer out of Westchester.

    That lets the airport kick operators out of private terminals and subject them to flight limitations inside the main terminal, keeping private air travel private. JSX says they “will be challenging the opinion on appeal.”

    The ruling also has implications for Bark Air, the high end startup airline for dogs flying Gulfstream G5s between New York, LA and London. Its first revenue flight, operated by Talon Air, was May 23. They offer service for up to 15 dogs and owners, operating from private terminals – with no crates or carriers and toys, blankets, and treats. When buying a $6,000 one-way from New York to LA for a dog, their human flies free, in the New York area out of Westchester.


    Credit: Bark Air

    (HT: @crucker)

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