Land war brewing at Ogle Airport

May 01, 2019 News

Domestic aircraft operators at Ogle Airport are seriously concerned at the increasing strong arm treatment by Ogle Airport Inc., which was leased 407 acres of state land in 2003 for the equitable development of the aviation sector.
Cpt. Emil Jahan, the Managing Director of Hinterland Aviation, a small aircraft operation, has gone public on his seven-year struggle to be sub-leased a small plot of land.
Despite making it very clear in October 2017 to the Ogle Land Committee which is chaired by engineer Marcel Gaskin, that he had secured their requisite financing, he claims that he was told by Anthony Mekdeci, one of the members of the Land Committee who is also the CEO of the airport, that he had to stand in line with over 40 other applicants ahead of him.
Cpt. Jahan advised that he was further astonished to have received a letter two weeks ago from Mr Mekdeci in his capacity as CEO of the Ogle Airport which was soliciting expression of interest by aircraft operators for lands.
A strongly worded letter by Cpt. Jahan to Ogle Airport Inc. was seen by this newspaper in which he has made it clear that OAI seems determined to put small aircraft operators like himself out of business.
However, this newspaper has just learnt that two larger aircraft operators are also being threatened by OAI.
One company had paid $75M to OAI for their land in 2017 and had to expend another $25M to fill in the swamp and allow it to settle.
One month ago, they were summoned by the OAI Land Committee and asked to move down several plots to facilitate another applicant.
When they refused, they were told that their land will be reallocated if it wasn’t developed immediately.
They would come even as other lands which were leased remain undeveloped since 2006.
A third and even larger aircraft operator was promised the adjoining land to his 2017 lease.
He was flabbergasted when heavy duty equipment belonging to one of the several related companies at the airport moved into the said land and commenced excavation.
This has caused him to take measures to prevent further work until it is resolved.
It has also been reported to KN that several front companies are being used in what appears to be another serious land grab. Despite this being brought to the attention of the relevant authorities no action has been taken to date.
Recently, it was reported that ExxonMobil’s was sub-leased lands at the airport to build a headquarter.

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