The battle over closure of the City Centre Airport isn’t over yet, with the filing of a lawsuit the Edmonton Flying Club says hinges on a lease broken 42 years premature.
“We warned that lawsuits would fly if the airport authority and city hall were a party to closure, and that’s exactly what we’ve seen,” Alberta Enterprise Group president Tim Shipton said yesterday.
The lawsuit, filed last week by lawyers of Edmonton Flying Club president Ralph Henderson, alleges the City of Edmonton lease doesn’t contain an early termination clause, and the Edmonton Regional Airport Authority is required to operate the airport until 2052.
The group says trips in and out of the site are essential for speedy health service, citing an early December Medevac flight in jeopardy of being re-routed due to nasty weather. They claim a patient would likely have died had the plane been re-routed from the City Centre Airport.
“It’s all about time,” Shipton said. “There is no simpler or effective solution.”
Officials say an estimated 10,000 Medevac flights to and from the airport were flown in 2009.
Edmonton Airport Authority spokeswoman Traci Bednard wouldn’t comment on the specifics of the lawsuit yesterday, citing respect for legal process.
