Later today the City of Los Angeles will officially hand over Ontario International Airport to the San Bernardino County community.
The move comes just days before a trial was set to begin with Ontario claiming LA had violated its agreement to promote the airport as a regional hub. The handover ends a near-50 year relationship LA has had running Ontario, including taking ownership of the airport in 1985. The fight between the City of Ontario and LA began in 2012 when passenger traffic ebbed at 4-point-2 million and the Ontario leaders cried fowl saying the LA Airport Commission was not doing enough to attract new routes into Ontario.
The terms of that deal said LA had to do its best to bring air traffic to Ontario International. During the economic downturn, Ontario says LA acted in its own interest and a lawsuit to wrest ownership and control back to Ontario was set to begin in two weeks. An airport authority made up of Ontario and San Bernardino County commissioners will operate Ontario. No layoffs are planned. Tom Perumean, KABC NEWS.
