Air-Freight Carrier Faces Fight Over Toledo Project : Litigation: Ohio residents concerned about flight noise have filed a lawsuit seeking to stop construction of a $58-million facility for Irvine-based Burlington Air Express.

Airport authorities in Toledo, Ohio, broke ground this week on a controversial $58-million air-freight facility for Irvine-based Burlington Air Express, but a lawsuit by local residents could still hinder the long-delayed project.

Burlington announced early last year that it would move its freight-sorting hub from temporary quarters in Ft. Wayne, Ind., to a new facility at Toledo Express Airport.

The Toledo airport authority, in conjunction with the city, county and state governments, lured the carrier by agreeing to build a $30-million sorting facility and make another $28 million worth of improvements at the airport.

But many local residents have opposed the project from the beginning. They have complained about noise from the projected 44 nightly takeoffs and landings and said that economic benefits to the area will be negligible.

A group called Citizens Against Burlington filed a lawsuit Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Washington against the Federal Aviation Administration, which must approve the airport improvement plan. The group claims that the FAA’s environmental impact statement failed to adequately address noise issues and didn’t make the required analysis of alternatives.

The project is already a year behind schedule as a result of the residents’ objections, and the lawsuit asks for an injunction blocking further construction.

Jerry Arkebauer, director of administration for the Toledo-Lucas County Port Authority, which operates the airport, declined to speculate on what the court might decide. But he said construction was continuing, with completion now scheduled for October, 1991.

Burlington officials declined to comment on the situation.

Arkebauer said the Burlington facility will employ 800 people upon opening and 950 in its second year of operation, mostly in nighttime package-sorting jobs. He also said it will serve as a “community economic magnet” by attracting companies to the area.

The county port authority is responsible for promoting economic development, he said, and air freight is a unique opportunity for the airport, which is located 60 miles south of the Detroit airport.

“We’re never going to have the commercial airline traffic, so what’s left?,” Arkebauer said.

The port authority has issued $30 million in bonds for the project, with the balance of the funds coming from the state, the county, the city and the FAA. The project calls for Burlington to make payments totaling $65 million over a 23-year period as well as pay airport landing fees.

But Bill Reuter, a spokesman for Citizens Against Burlington, said the “low-wage, middle-of-the-night jobs” that Burlington will provide are of negligible economic value to the region. He asserted that officials have understated the cost of the project, which he claimed would total $120 million.

He also noted that Burlington would be leaving Ft. Wayne despite promising officials there that it would try to make the Indiana city its permanent home. Burlington Chairman David L. Marshall acknowledged in published remarks last year that the company had decided to move because Toledo had offered a better economic package.

Ft. Wayne authorities had spent $27 million improving their airport in the hope of keeping Burlington. “They say they’re good corporate partners, but we don’t see it that way,” said Reuter of the carrier.

Burlington is a subsidiary of the Pittston Co., a Greenwich, Conn.-based conglomerate that also has interests in coal and security services. The air-freight operation, which specializes in bulk freight rather than door-to-door package service, had revenue of $836.2 million and profits of $18.5 million in 1989 in the hotly competitive express-freight industry.

Burlington employs about 500 people at its corporate headquarters in Irvine, according to a spokeswoman, and a total of 5,000 people at 160 locations worldwide. About half of the firm’s revenue comes from international shipments.

HEADQUARTERS: Irvine

PARENT COMPANY: The Pittston Co., Greenwich, Conn.

EMPLOYEES: 5,000 worldwide, 3,000 nationally, 500 in Irvine

TOP EXECUTIVE: Chairman and CEO David L. Marshall

1989 REVENUES: $836.2 million

1989 EARNINGS: $18.5 million

Source: Burlington Air Express