Service provider sues over eviction notice

The port authority's lawyer said ReadyAir was being evicted for reasons including failure to pay rent.
By ED RUNYAN
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
WARREN -- ReadyAir, a provider of fuel, deicing and other services at the Youngstown-Warren Regional Airport, says it is preparing to take a new client into its hangar space -- but faces the prospect of being evicted Friday.
Robert T. Moosally, owner of ReadyAir LLC, filed a lawsuit Tuesday in Trumbull County Common Pleas Court seeking a temporary restraining order to stop the Western Reserve Port Authority from evicting his company.
Moosally would not say who the client is, but did say it is moving equipment into the hangar as early as today. He said he has moved aircraft formerly housed in the ReadyAir hangar to the Alpha Am Air hangar to provide space for the new client.
"This will be a big boon to the airport," Moosally said, adding that it will be a 24-hour-per-day, seven-day-per-week operation, but it is not an airline and not a flight school. He said negotiations with the company have been going on for about 18 months.
Steve Bowser, the airport's director of aviation, said he was aware of the negotiations with a company wanting storage space, but he would not reveal its identity. He said the company will be a "step in the right direction," adding that "any business for the airport is good."
Notification
An exhibit in ReadyAir's lawsuit is a copy of a letter from the port authority, notifying ReadyAir that it should leave its facilities in Hangar 2 at the airport by Friday on the grounds of nonpayment of rent and other fees and "multiple breaches of rental agreement." The letter was sent by Daniel G. Keating, port authority attorney.
The suit states ReadyAir sent the port authority an invoice for $40,000, the amount ReadyAir says the port authority owes it as a result of preferential treatment given to Winner Aviation, the other service provider at the airport. ReadyAir representative Chad Quinn said the company was holding rent payments in escrow until the port authority dealt with the inequities.
Moosally also filed a complaint with the Federal Aviation Administration recently. He says FAA rules prevent unequal treatment at airports.
Calls it retaliation
ReadyAir says the port authority began a "retaliatory eviction proceeding" against ReadyAir in response to the invoice.
Bowser said ReadyAir now owes the port authority more than $20,000 in rent. He would not comment on the lawsuit. The case is assigned to Judge Peter Kontos.
ReadyAir demands damages in excess of $25,000 against the port authority and temporary and permanent injunctions against the port authority from having ReadyAir removed from the premises.
Moosally said port authority representatives told him the inequities would be addressed in Winner's next contract with the port authority, but when Winner's 10-year deal was signed last month, the conditions were not equalized.
Rick Hale, president and CEO of Winner, said last month that the authority once thought having competition between Winner and ReadyAir would be good for the airport, but he thinks it has been a failed experiment. He said that Winner has been at the airport 11 years, most of it as the only provider of fuel and other services, and that the airport operated for many years before that with just one such provider.
runyan@vindy.com