Bay County, FL -- Construction on the new Bay County Airport is on hold, at least temporarily.

The president of a local pilots group says their New York attorney called him Thursday afternoon to tell him about the injunction. Friends of PFN President Fred Werner tells us an appeals judge granted the temporary injunction for construction on the new airport.

Werner says the group filed the motion in an effort to buy time until a lawsuit against the Federal Aviation Administration is settled in January. Werner says Thursday's injunction stops the first phase of construction on the new airport in an effort to save the wetlands in the West Bay site until the lawsuit is ruled on.

News 13 also spoke with Airport Executive Director Randy Curtis who says he received confirmation of the injunction at noon on Friday, but says the design and permitting process should be allowed to move forward even if initial construction is halted by the courts.

A hearing is scheduled for December 18th in New York. 

The Airport Authority broke ground November 1 with hopes of having the new $331million airport  up and running by 2010.