Surf Air (URF, Santa Monica) ended its flights out of San Carlos,US on June 29 but allegedly still owes San Mateo County, in which the airport is located, at least USD131,371 in taxes for 2017, The Almanac has reported.
Local residents had protested against the operations of the membership-based airline at the airport earlier this year. At the peak of its activity at San Carlos, Surf Air operated as much as 45 flights per day to and from the airport.
San Mateo County officials said that the airline might owe even more in overdue taxes for 2015 and 2016, although it has not calculated the amounts yet.
Surf Air is currently involved in multiple legal proceedings related to alleged debts. Encompass Aviation (Hawthorne), which until mid-June operated Surf Air's flights, filed a lawsuit demanding payment for USD3.1 million in unpaid bills. In addition, the US federal government claimed that Surf Air owed it USD2.33 million in overdue taxes for 2016 and 2017.
The virtual carrier filed a counterclaim against Encompass, in which it alleged that the airline continued to use eight PC-12s sub-leased from Surf Air and demanded USD10 million in compensation.
The Californian "all-you-can-fly" membership-based carrier used to have its own Air Operator's Certificate (AOC) until 2017, but subsequently relinquished it and entered into a partnership with Encompass Aviation. Surf Air terminated this relationship on June 15, 2018, and subsequently awarded a charter contract to Advanced Air (AN, Hawthorne).
Since then, Encompass Aviation is now marketing itself under the ROAM (United States of America) (Hawthorne) brand. It continues to profer the eight PC-12s for charter services.
