A bitter dispute over rights to sell jet fuel at Hawthorne airport has turned even uglier since the city moved recently to allow competition on the airfield for the first time.
A private service operator that had sole rights to lucrative gas sales since 2005 recently installed bright-yellow blockades in front of his competitor’s new $1.5 million fuel tanks and pumps. And now both sides are preparing legal arguments for lawsuits.
“We are 100 percent in the right,” said Dan Wolfe, who has a hangar and office buildings adjacent to the 80-acre airport as well as an airport property lease. Wolfe has a Federal Aviation Administration “through-the-fence” agreement allowing him airport access from an attached former Northrop facility.