JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2013 A feud between Jacksonville City Councilman Nick Howland and members of the Jacksonville Aviation Authority has spilled into email exchanges obtained by News4JAX, with JAA board members accusing Howland of harassment and threats.<\/p>\n
What the emails say<\/p>\n
The dispute traces back to a February email from a JAA board member about projects at Cecil Airport and whether they were \u201cconsistent with FAA regulations.\u201d That email states Howland made a \u201cnot-so-veiled threat,\u201d writing: \u201cIf you keep undermining my economic development efforts, there will be hell to pay.\u201d<\/p>\n
A second email, sent in May, came from another JAA board member and escalated the tension further.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut Nick \u2014 you need to let more of JAA work continue without the overt intimidation and threats I\u2019ve heard directly come out of your mouth,\u201d the email states. \u201cIt\u2019s pervasive, and I hear it as harassment. It\u2019s disappointing \u2014 you\u2019re better than that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Howland pushed back in his own email response: \u201cI am extremely surprised by your accusation of bullying, intimidation, and threats. I\u2019ve been nothing but a gentleman about this.\u201d<\/p>\n
Howland responds<\/p>\n
Despite the sharp language in the emails, Howland and JAA members appeared professional at Wednesday\u2019s board meeting, where Johnson was present. When asked about the exchange, Howland downplayed the dispute.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat was an anomaly,\u201d Howland said. \u201cThe conversation back and forth between a board member and I \u2014 I don\u2019t know how it became public. No one should have known that conversation existed, but there are public records around it. Regardless, that shows we\u2019re figuring out ways to grow Cecil.\u201d<\/p>\n
JAA CEO weighs in<\/p>\n
JAA CEO Mark Vanloh told News4JAX that the focus on expanding Cecil Airport is not new, saying the authority has been working to grow Cecil into a larger operation for some time.<\/p>\n
Vanloh also addressed other issues facing the airport, including a recent spike in fuel costs that is causing some airlines to reduce the number of flights they offer.<\/p>\n
On another note, Vanloh said a new concourse expected to open in January 2027 will add at least six new American Airlines flights.<\/p>\n
Copyright 2026 by WJXT News4JAX – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2013 A feud between Jacksonville City Councilman Nick Howland and members of the Jacksonville Aviation Authority…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":189896,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[5433,116,118,117],"class_list":["post-286599","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jacksonville","tag-jaa","tag-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville-headlines","tag-jacksonville-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/286599","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=286599"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/286599\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/189896"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=286599"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=286599"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=286599"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}