Vision Airlines regains control of airliner seized over contract dispute

Vision Airlines regained control on Tuesday of a jet airliner that was briefly seized as part of a contract lawsuit.

As about 130 passengers bound for Biloxi, Miss., watched from the gate, a Boeing 737 owned by Vision, a Suwanee, Ga.-based unit of North Las Vegas-based Vision Aviation Holdings Inc., was seized Monday at the St. Petersburg-Clearwater International Airport in Florida.

According to Vision senior vice president David Meers, a substitute judge granted the seizure action on Dec. 27 without notice to the company as part of on-going litigation.

The matter involves a contract dispute with CTS Engines of Fort Lauderdale concerning nearly $75,000 in engine-repair charges on another Vision plane. On Tuesday, Vision attorneys got another Broward County state court judge to rescind the seizure.

Pinellas County, Fla., sheriff deputies took control of the plane by confiscating the Federal Aviation Administration log that the plane must carry to fly legally.

Vision Holidays, another part of Vision Aviation, conducts ground and air tours of places such as the Grand Canyon and Hoover Dam from the North Las Vegas Airport using turboprop planes.

Two years ago, Vision Airlines attempted to start a discount airline between secondary cities east of the Mississippi River, such as Knoxville, Tenn., and Niagara Falls to resorts in Florida. For a brief period on 2011, Vision stretched its route network to McCarran International Airport.

Since then, it has retrenched its network to Biloxi, St. Petersburg-Clearwater and the Orlando suburb of Sanford. It has concentrated on charter flights, said Meers, including work for the U.S. government, college basketball teams and the Beau Rivage in Biloxi.

In addition to the engine dispute, commissioners in Okaloosa County, Fla., voted in December to sue the company to collect for about $146,000 in allegedly unpaid fees for the time that Vision operated out of the airport.

Contact reporter Tim O'Reiley at
toreiley@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-5290.