Carlsbad’s simmering airport fight just escalated. Citizens for a Friendly Airport, a local residents group, filed a second lawsuit Friday in San Diego County Superior Court to stop United Airlines from launching commercial service at McClellan‑Palomar Airport. The complaint, aimed at both San Diego County and United, alleges the county signed off on airline leases without doing the environmental homework required under state law and warns that more scheduled flights will crank up noise and worsen air quality for nearby North County neighborhoods. The plaintiffs want a judge to put United’s lease on ice while the case plays out.
United is slated to start flying out of Palomar on March 30, after the Board of Supervisors approved a ground lease late last year. Tickets are already on sale. According to San Diego County, United plans to use Embraer 175 regional jets with about 70 seats, running two round‑trips a day to Denver and two to San Francisco. Local reporting noted that supervisors approved the lease in December 2025, and county officials have promoted the deal as a revenue generator that will boost North County’s air connections, according to the Times of San Diego.
United would not be the first carrier in. American Airlines’ regional arm, Envoy, started twice‑daily service to Phoenix earlier this year using 76‑seat Embraer E175 jets, a move that triggered C4FA’s earlier lawsuit. The city of Carlsbad then asked to join that case, asserting the county should have amended the airport’s conditional‑use permit before allowing more commercial flying. A judge rejected a request for a preliminary injunction to ground American’s flights, according to reporting by the North County Daily Star.
The county is compounding its illegal use of the airport, C4FA attorney Cory Briggs told KPBS, arguing the county skipped legally required review under the California Environmental Quality Act. In court papers, the group claims additional commercial service will raise airplane noise levels, worsen air quality and ramp up pressure to expand the airport beyond its current footprint. Those arguments are laid out on the group’s website, Citizens for a Friendly Airport.
County officials are not buying it. Donna Durckel, a county communications officer, told The San Diego Union‑Tribune that the United flights represent only a small slice of the operations forecast in the airport’s updated master plan and that staff concluded the lease would not trigger significant new environmental impacts. The county’s airport page also notes United’s March 30 start date and confirms that American’s Phoenix flights are already underway, according to San Diego County.
Legal Context and What To Watch
The legal fight centers on CEQA and whether San Diego County adequately studied noise, air quality and land‑use impacts before signing commercial leases at Palomar. C4FA previously scored a win over the county’s 2018 airport master plan approvals, which were challenged in earlier litigation and led the county to revise the plan and environmental review in 2021, a history that has been laid out in public documents and local reporting.
Now, with United’s March launch date creeping closer and seats already on sale, the new lawsuit could set off a flurry of motions for temporary relief or even settlement talks that might delay or derail the debut of United’s Palomar service. C4FA’s past master plan challenge is summarized on the group’s site, Citizens for a Friendly Airport, while procedural twists in the airport dispute have been tracked by The Coast News.
Next up: watch the San Diego County Superior Court docket for fresh filings and any bid for injunctive relief that could disrupt United’s timetable. County supervisors and airport staff say they still expect service to launch as planned, but at this point the calendar is in the hands of the judges as much as the politicians.
