Signature Flight Support Issues Statement on JWA Decision
Signature Flight Support’s statement by Senior Vice President Geoff Heck, regarding decision by the Orange County Board of Supervisors to Award Signature’s Leasehold at John Wayne Airport (JWA) to ACI Jet:
Last Tuesday’s decision by the Orange County Board of Supervisors to award Signature’s leasehold at John Wayne Airport to ACI Jet ignored the unanimous decision of its citizen Airport Commission as well as a strong recommendation by the John Wayne Airport staff. The Board awarded a ground lease to a company that did not meet the County’s basic requirements and was ranked fifth out of the six bidders.
The process to award a short-term lease while the Airport finalizes its Master Plan seemed initially to be sound. Eight companies, including Signature and ACI Jet responded to a Request for Qualifications (RFQ) formally issued by Airport staff. At the initial staff screening, two of the eight bidders were found to be unqualified.
ACI should have been immediately disqualified by Airport staff for its failure to meet financial requirements such as providing audited financial statements. Such financial statements are a critical requirement to enable Airport staff and the County Supervisors to determine if the bidder has the financial wherewithal to be able to provide the necessary services under the lease.
An audited financial statement, a standard pre-requisite in bids of this nature, would have provided further verification to the Supervisors whether ACI was able to take on the significant financial commitment of a new location such as the leasehold at John Wayne Airport.
After an examination of the remaining six bidders’ qualifications according to the objective criteria detailed in the RFQ, Airport staff issued a report underscoring that Signature was in fact the top scorer and most qualified, a reflection of its excellent performance, with decades of operational experience, a stellar safety record, and financial strength at John Wayne Airport.
After interrupting its public deliberations on the lease award to meet in closed session, the Board of Supervisors reordered the rankings, placing ACI first, Atlantic second, and dropping Signature to fifth place. Because the Board discussed this item in closed session, the public - and Signature - was unable to participate in the discussion and most important was unable to hear the Board’s rationale for making the decision to re-rank the bidders.
Signature has an impeccable record at John Wayne Airport. Our customers have reacted with shock to the Board’s decision that will negatively impact their businesses at John Wayne Airport. Our base tenants benefit from Signature network pricing programs and are concerned about the impact this decision will have on their operations around the globe.
In addition, any conjecture by the Board regarding fuel pricing issues is baseless. As is standard in the aviation industry, Signature's pricing varies by airport based on our costs of operating at a respective airport. We carefully take these issues into consideration when we establish our market fuel pricing. Significantly, the majority of Signature’s network customers benefit from industry leading loyalty and pricing programs.
The recent public statements targeting Signature Flight Support are unwarranted and damaging. Signature cannot allow inaccurate statements or allegations that negatively impact our well established brand and our customer loyalty to go unanswered.
Signature is pursuing all avenues available to us, and would strongly encourage the board of supervisors to revisit this process and their decision.