Citizens for a Friendly Airport has filed a Superior Court lawsuit against San Diego County and United Airlines in an effort to prevent the United flights set to start March 30 at McClellan-Palomar Airport in Carlsbad.
The case has been assigned to Judge Mark T. Cumba for a management conference at 10:30 a.m. June 26. Cumba stipulated Tuesday that the parties involved should consider arbitration or mediation to settle the issue.
Last year the airport watchdog group, also known as C4FA, filed a similar suit asking to halt the American Airlines’ commercial flights that began in February.
In November the court approved a request by the city of Carlsbad to join the group in the American suit. A management conference for that case is scheduled at 1:30 p.m. April 17 before Judge Gregory W. Pollack.
In both cases C4FA alleges the approvals violate the California Environmental Quality Act. Additional commercial flights reduce air quality, increase airplane noise, erode residents’ quality of life and allow the airport to grow, according to the claims.
Cory Briggs, an attorney representing the local airport watchdog group, declined to comment on the lawsuits.
American, United and Delta airlines all flew regular flights out of Carlsbad in the past.
For almost a year now American has had daily flights between Carlsbad and Phoenix using 76-seat Embraer 175 jets.
The county Board of Supervisors approved an airport lease in December allowing United Airlines to resume commercial flights with service to and from San Francisco and Denver.
United provided regular service on its United Express flights between Carlsbad and Los Angeles from 1996 to 2016 with a 30-passenger turboprop aircraft. The flights ceased when the company switched to a new fleet of jets that needed a longer runway.
The C4FA group won a lawsuit it filed in 2018 over the county’s approval of an updated master plan for the Carlsbad airport. As a result, the county was required to complete additional noise studies and make other changes to the master plan update, which was approved again in 2021 after the modifications.
An environment review completed for the update included a forecast for commercial air passenger service with up to 575,000 additional take-offs and landings annually, said Donna Durckel, communications officer for the county’s land use and environmental group.
“Commercial flights out of Palomar since American Airlines began flying from there account for a small fraction of this total,” Durckel said in an email Wednesday.
The county’s analysis concluded that the project would result in no significant new environmental impacts from the increase, she said.
“These forecasts anticipated McClellan-Palomar Airport (was) to provide limited commercial airline service while continuing to primarily support general aviation aircraft such as corporate and private jets,” Durckel said.
“The airport master plan does not provide for the expansion of the airport beyond its current boundaries and focuses on limited improvements within the existing airport footprint to support established aviation uses,” she said.