RALLY FOR SATURDAY IS STILL ON

North Side of Douglas Loop North
(between 28th St. and 31st St. - near the Business Park off of Ocean Park Blvd)

You are invited, along with friends, family and neighbors to come out and show support and unity to stop the continuation of the extreme harmful impacts from Santa Monica Airport (SMO).

SPECIAL GUEST SPEAKERS will include: Santa Monica Mayor Ted Winterer, Congressman Ted Lieu,  Los Angeles Council Member Mike Bonin and other political representatives, as well as community activists from Santa Monica, Ocean Park, Venice, West Los Angeles and Mar Vista.

While the settlement agreement of the law suit with the FAA has been announced, allowing The City of Santa Monica to close SMO December 31st 2028 (still 12 years away)  – The urgency for this protest is because due to start February 2017, JetSuite – funded by JetBlue is scheduled to begin offering commercial jet service of 30 seat jets out of Santa Monica Airport. SMO has short 5000′ runway that is not designed for jets and has no safety runway area to protect immediately adjacent neighborhoods and homes. 

UPDATE: JetSuiteX Delays Service to Santa Monica Airport
IRVINE, Calif., Feb. 1, 2017 JetSuiteX announced today that they have entered into a Standstill Agreement with the city of Santa Monica concerning JetSuiteX’s planned operations at Santa Monica Airport. The agreement is designed to give the parties time to come to a final agreement. 
Flights to Santa Monica Airport were originally scheduled to launch on February 6th, with destinations including Carlsbad, San Jose and Las Vegas. In the interim, JetSuiteX has agreed not to operate at Santa Monica prior to February 15th, 2017. To avoid uncertainty and confusion, JetSuiteX has cancelled all flights to/from or connecting through Santa Monica from February 6th through February 24(th) and will issue full refunds for all affected customers.
CEO Alex Wilcox said, “Given the uncertainty surrounding the status of the airport we have entered into this standstill agreement to provide time for an orderly process to negotiate with the city. We apologize to our clients…”

This new service was scheduled prior to the recent settlement and at a time when the Santa Monica City Council has moved to evict Atlantic Aviation the jet service provider. The Council has voted unanimously to protect our community and neighbors and reduce the harmful impacts of the airport by closing it as soon as legally possible. Santa Monica has committed to a vision to replace SMO with a healthy and sustainable park that would be open to all and accessible to everyone.

According to SMO records, in recent months jet flights out of the airport have increased dramatically to where the city is now pumping over 3 million gallons of aviation fuel and generating up to 60 million lbs. of C02 annually. Currently at this shocking 15% annual rate of increase - jet flights, noise and pollution would increase by a massive 100% by 2023 presuming existing airport configuration. In the City’s announcement of the settlement with the FAA it was stated the City of Santa Monica is within its legal rights to immediately plan and reduce of the current length of the runway to 3500ft. This length of runway is too short and would prevent flights of many (current) jet aircraft under FAA rules. Find our more at the rally this Saturday.

The it of Santa Monica has been making progressive strides toward protecting the environment and continuing its leadership by making Santa Monica a more sustainable place to live, work and play.  This is exemplified with the launch of Breeze, LA first public bike share, opening of Metro’s new Expo Line and updated Big Blue Bus service connections. The aviation industry (without regards to the safety and against the wishes of the community or the City) want to transform the existing, small general aviation airport into a major – unsafe commercial airport.

We join groups that are supporting this Concerned Residents Against Airport Pollution event. These include: No Jets – Santa Monica, Airport2Park Foundation, Friends of Sunset Park, Venice Residents Against SMO, North Westdale Neighborhood Association, Mar Vista Community Association, CASMAT and SMO Future.

For more information – contact: Martin Rubin, (310) 479-2529 - martinrubin@earthlink.net

Any updates will be posted HERE