Southern California Aerial Advertisers' Association v. Federal Aviation Administration

Southern California Aerial Advertisers’ Association (“petitioner”) seeks review of the Federal Aviation Administration’s (“FAA”) decision to prohibit fixed-wing aircraft from traveling through a section of airspace west of Los Angeles International Airport (“LAX”) known as the “shoreline transition.” We declare that decision invalid because it was not issued in accordance with the requirements of the Administrative Procedure Act (“APA”).

FACTS

Petitioner is an unincorporated trade association comprised of approximately fifty individual commercial pilots and banner-towing operations based in Southern California. Petitioner’s members have been making banner-towing flights along the Southern California coastline for over forty years. Their standard route hugs the coast from Northern San Diego County to the Ventura County line. This route requires petitioner’s members to pass through an area west of LAX known as the “shoreline transition.”

Federal aviation regulations classify the airspace directly over and west of LAX, including the shoreline transition, as a “terminal control area” (“TCA”). See 14 C.F.R. Part 71, Subpart K. Terminal control areas are areas of high density traffic…