IE Business Daily Business news for the Inland Empire.
The U.S. Senate has approved legislation that will speed up the transfer of ownership of Ontario International Airport.
The bill, which the Senate passed Wednesday with an 89-4 vote, was part of a larger bill that kept the Federal Aviation Administration operating, according to a statement released by the Ontario International Airport Authority shortly after the vote.
The legislation was originally sponsored by Rep. Ken Calvert, R-Corona and was passed overwhelmingly last month by the House as a stand-alone bill. It was passed again Monday by the House after it was folded into the FAA Reauthorization Act.
President Obama is expected to sign the bill, which will authorize the transfer of the airport’s ownership from the city of Los Angeles to the airport authority, but it’s not clear when that will happen.
Last August, both sides reached an agreement that would hand the airport over to a local authority, but details of that transfer are still being worked out.
“This is a landmark day in Southern California aviation,” Alan D. Wapner, airport authority president and Ontario city council member said in the statement. “We are grateful for the tremendous bipartisan support this legislation received from throughout the Southland.
“It completes the funding plan for the transfer of [Ontario International] from Los Angeles World Airports to the [airport authority], which we continue to expect will be completed in the second half of this calendar year.”
During the past few years, Ontario and Los Angeles have been locked in a bitter dispute regarding a severe drop in passenger traffic at the airport.
Officials with world airports, the agency that owns and manages Ontario International, blamed the decline on the recession, but Ontario officials say world airports ignored Ontario International and poured most of its resources into its other major property, Los Angeles International Airport.
Ontario filed a lawsuit against world airports in June 2013 seeking damages, but that suit was put on hold when the ownership transfer agreement was announced.
