A legal battle over a failed expansion plan by Lehigh Valley International Airport has a local state lawmaker once again calling for regional cooperation when it comes to spreading out air traffic in the Philadelphia area.

KYW's Brad Segall reports the airport owes a developer $26 million for seizing land more than a decade ago. The two sides will meet on Monday with a judge to try to hammer out a settlement.

Delaware County State Representative Bryan Lentz says those talks should include discussions about sharing air traffic in the busy mid-Atlantic corridor:

"I've been pushing for a number of years now for Philadelphia airport to cooperate with Lehigh Valley Airport. Philadelphia has too much air traffic. Lehigh Valley has too little so that sounds to me like there's a match there."

Lentz says the model works in New England where Boston's Logan Airport cooperates with airports in Manchester and Providence. He's also worried that if Lehigh Valley pays out a big settlement it can't afford that will push more air traffic into an already overcrowded Philadelphia airport which is also looking to expand into Tinicum.