A surprise agreement between city officials and the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) means that the Santa Monica airport runway will be shortened this year and the facility will close at the end of 2028. As a result, JetSuiteX Air (Rapid City Regional) has announced that it will delay the start of Santa Monica services that were due to commence this week. The airline's press release says that it has entered into a Standstill Agreement with the city of Santa Monica to give it enough time to decide about the future of the service.

JetSuite X had originally announced that it would commence 4x weekly service between San Diego McClellan Palomar and San José, US using Santa Monica as a stopover. The flights would mark the resumption of scheduled commercial passenger ops at the airport. JetSuite X was also going to connect Santa Monica with Las Vegas Harry Reid 2x weekly using E135 aircraft chartered from parent Delux Public Charter (Rapid City Regional). The decision has thrown airport operations into doubt, as the runway reduction will make it impossible for JetSuite X to use its jets.

Alex Wilcox, CEO of JetSuite X, expressed his disappointment to the Santa Monica Lookout, saying that the window of time left to the jet operator may not be enough to bother starting services. But Wilcox also believes the agreement could be challenged. "There might be more to this story," he said. " And this deal might be reversed."

The Santa Monica-FAA agreement comes after years of discussions between the two entities. According to a 1948 agreement, the city was obliged to keep the land in perpetuity for aviation purposes. The city has recently fought to regain the land citing safety concerns – the runway is closely situated to residential homes – with an eye to redevelopment as parkland.

In the meantime, JetSuite X will continue its other services in California and Nevada, flying to Burbank, San Diego McClellan Palomar, Concord, CA, Las Vegas Harry Reid, and San José, US.