LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — Pilots and hangar owners at the North Las Vegas airport are raising concerns about whether they'll be allowed to remain at the second-busiest airport in the state.
Concerns boiled over this week, first at a Clark County Commission meeting and later at an angry meeting at the airport itself, where the county's general aviation director faced tough questions from a standing-room only crowd.
WATCH | What's going on at the North Las Vegas airport?
Meanwhile, a county official says there's no intent to force pilots or hangar owners off the airport property, but acknowledged that a new master plan to upgrade the North Las Vegas airport may result in some changes, including to hangar agreements.
The proposed master plan calls for extending one of the runways at the airport to make room for more and larger jets; the move is intended to relieve congestion at Harry Reid International during big events such as the Super Bowl, F1, Sphere concerts and other similar events.
Clark County owns the land underneath the airport, after acquiring the property from North Las Vegas, which in turn got it from the legendary billionaire and aviation pioneer Howard Hughes.
Today, it's home to flight schools, aircraft maintenance facilities, training and plenty of private airplane owners, many of whom are ex-military members. They own the hangar buildings, and have made upgrades to them over the years. The county has signed ground leases for the hangars, most of which carry a 30-year term that doesn't end for years.
But more recently, people who have sought to buy or sublease hangars have been told by Clark County's aviation department that leases won't be extended beyond their current terms, worrying current tenants that their days may be numbered.
"When you look at these hangars, you'll see that they can easily stand for another 40 or 50 years," says Jeffrey Lustick, a pilot, Air Force veteran, and attorney who's representing the North Las Vegas Hangar Owners Group.
"There's no reason to get rid of these hangars, and with the open space that we have at this airport, there can be a compatible use between the transient jets that bring our economy, and the people who have been here for a long time."
The increase in traffic will require a place to park airplanes during their stays in Las Vegas, and hangar owners worry that place will be the land underneath their property.
But a Clark County official denies the aviation department wants to evict anyone.
"I want to be really clear: We're not kicking people out. We're in the aviation business, right?" says Scott Kichline, managing director for commercial and business development. "It's not going to be a mall, it's not going to be anything else. We've got a master plan to invest $200 million in the facility. It's an airport, and it's the second busiest airport in the state, and we have a need to have a place for general aviation."
But Kichline stressed that the leases at the airport — like many other leases — have end dates and reversion clauses, which stipulate that the county may acquire the buildings when the lease is up.
"At the end of those leases, the tenant can either remove their improvements, or the improvements would revert over to the county," he says. "But that doesn't mean [the hangar] goes away. It's still there. It will be a different lease."
And that's what worries people such as Lustick and his fellow owners, who worry about what happens if they can't get a lease extension.
"There's over 150 hangers here, and I think if these hangars leave, the people with these hangars will also have to leave," he says. "They'll have to sell their airplanes, they'll have to take their airplanes out of state. They'll have to move their airplanes to other airports, and Clark County controls all of the airports within this area."
Asked directly if there will always be a place at North Las Vegas airport for its current tenants, Kichline says, "that will absolutely be our goal, to communicate that. I think, for one reason or another, there's distrust there. So we're going to look to alleviate that."
Conflict of interest allegations
One potential reason for the distrust came up repeatedly this week, first at the county commission and then at the airport meeting, are allegations of a conflict of interest against Ben Czyzewski, the managing director of general aviation.
Czyzewski sits on the board of Air Elite, a company that offers customer service training to airport employees at Las Vegas and Henderson airports.
Air Elite is owned by World Fuel Services, which won a bid to provide airplane fuel at North Las Vegas airport via another subsidiary, Ascent Aviation Group. Part of the bid was the customer service training component provided by Air Elite.
Czyzewski told the crowd at the North Las Vegas meeting that his position with Air Elite is unpaid, and that it allows him to advocate for the airport with the company.
In addition, he said, he had nothing to do with the fuel contract, which was awarded by sealed bids decided by other officials at the county.
Channel 13 attended the meeting without cameras at the invitation of two hangar owners. Officials ejected another media outlet, saying the meeting was for airport tenants only, but Channel 13 remained for the entire 90-minute session.
Czyzwski's explanation did not satisfy many of the people at the meeting, Lustick included.
"I don't believe that the statements that the claim about the general aviation manager not having a conflict of interest the airport has said have no merit," Lustick said. "I don't believe that and I think we will establish that it does have a lot to do with the decisions that are made at this airport."
For his part, Kichline maintained there was no conflict. "I see no conflict at all. I don't see how there could be," he said. "Ben's not in purchasing. Ben's in general aviation operations. He was not involved in the bid. He couldn't have picked the fuel bid."
What happens now?
Tuesday's meeting was just the first of many airport officials plan to have with hangar owners, as well as other people who operate at the airport, including flight schools, aircraft maintenance shops and others.
The goal is to talk through the issues raised by the expansion of the airport, including the lengthening of Runway 12R-30L from 5,000 feet to 6,860 feet, along enough to accommodate larger aircraft from Gulfstream G500s to even a Boeing 737, although Kichline says those larger planes aren't expected to be part of the airport's regular traffic.
But many of the other details of the plan — where will all the new airplanes park?, for one — have still to be decided. The airport has hundreds of undeveloped acres that could be used for a variety of things.
According to the master plan, the airport has about 130 acres of property that could be used for aviation businesses or hangars. And, the plan says, the airport needs more than 200,000 additional square feet of hangar storage.
"I think if you look at the master plan, we've kind of identified parcels as future development," Kichline said. "Those things really haven't been determined. ... This is a 10-year plan. This is not tomorrow."
But current hangar owners have their eyes on tomorrow, and say there's plenty of room for everybody at an expanded North Las Vegas airport.
"It shouldn't be pitting us against the jets," Lustick said. "Because at the end of the day, it's not needed. It was never necessary. So the entire controversy was not needed. All they had to do was utilize the open land that's available and the compatible uses. We could have moved forward, but now were at this point where we have an uncertain future, and we need that resolved."
