Vision Airlines, which was touted by Gov. Rick Scott early in his term for agreeing to bring jobs to the Panhandle, has paid $117,000 to Okaloosa County to settle up over fees the county said it owed, though it wasn’t clear whether it would avert criminal charges prosecutors sought earlier in the week.
The disputed fees, which are collected by airlines from passengers and passed on to airport operators, were part of a back-and-forth between the company and the county over a failed venture that had been put forth as a big job creator in the western Panhandle.
The airline abandoned flights to Fort Walton Beach after two years and county officials had earlier sued over the fees.
David Meers, senior vice president of Vision, told the Northwest Florida Daily News that Okaloosa County was “full of shenanigans,” and that officials there failed to make good on more than $400,000 in advertising that had been promised to Vision if it located at Northwest Florida Regional Airport.
Scott held a news conference in January, 2011, when Vision announced it would fly out of Fort Walton, and Meers even joined Scott as his guest at his first State of the State speech.
