AOPA Pilot Magazine - June 2018 - 12

AOPA ACTION

Fighting unreasonable fees
AOPA announces Airport Access Watch List
AS PART OF an ongoing initiative to ensure fee transparency, airport access, and

competition for critical services at publicly funded airports, AOPA announced an
Airport Access Watch List of 10 locations where the association believes fixedbase operators with monopoly positions may be preventing reasonable airport
access with their pricing practices, potentially putting them in violation of FAA
grant assurances.
The Watch List includes 10 public-access airports that, based on member complaints and research, AOPA believes may be imposing fees on pilots that are so
unreasonable that they restrict access. All have only one fixed-base operator that
controls all available general aviation ramp space, and all receive federal funds
through the Airport Improvement Program-meaning the locations are subject to
FAA grant assurances requiring reasonable and nondiscriminatory pricing. AOPA
filed three FAA Part 13 complaints against similar airports last year. This time,
AOPA hopes first to begin a dialogue with leaders at each airport to determine
what can be done to make the locations more welcoming to pilots, and to ensure
the airports are in compliance with federal grant obligations. AOPA has two outstanding Part 13 complaints regarding FBO pricing and airport access at Asheville
Regional Airport in North Carolina and Key West International Airport in Florida.
Several airports have agreed with AOPA's assessments on egregious FBO pricing practices, and some of those airports have unilaterally taken steps to correct
these situations. AOPA calls them self-help airports, and they include Orange
County, California; Waukegan, Illinois; Syracuse, New York; Santa Barbara,
California; Heber City, Utah; and Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
AOPA General Counsel Ken Mead said he is hopeful the dialogue with the
10 airports on the Watch List will result in their doing what other self-help
airports have done, which includes identifying and promoting transient
parking areas and facilitating various forms of competition.
www.aopa.org/fbopricing

ASN Volunteer
of the Month

Charlie Skelton
Tweed-New Haven Airport,
Connecticut (HVN)
GENERAL AVIATION advocate Charlie
Skelton has been AOPA's Airport
Support Network volunteer at
Tweed-New Haven (HVN) Airport in

12 | AOPA PILOT June 2018

Airport Access
Watch List
Atlantic City International
New Jersey (ACY)
Casper/Natrona County International
Wyoming (CPR)
Charlottesville-Albemarle
Virginia (CHO)
Chester County G. O. Carlson
Pennsylvania (MQS)
Hilton Head
South Carolina (HXD)
Laughlin/Bullhead International
Arizona (IFP)
Norfolk International
Virginia (ORF)
Rochester International
Minnesota (RST)
Rocky Mountain Metropolitan
Colorado (BJC)
Sloulin Field International
North Dakota (ISN)
To develop the Watch List, AOPA focused
on certain factors indicative of access
concerns, particularly those airports with
only one FBO. In addition to the FBOs'
pricing practices and ramp access control,
AOPA's Watch List locations were chosen
from the top 50 most complained-about
airports, based on the more than 1,000
complaints AOPA has received.

Connecticut since the ASN program started
in 1998. Earlier this year, Skelton alerted Sean
Collins, AOPA's Eastern regional manager,
about state legislation proposed to permanently close the crosswind Runway 14/32 at
Tweed-New Haven. His call resulted in AOPA
action that turned into letters to the state legislature opposing the proposal. Skelton's actions
to keep Collins informed proved invaluable to
AOPA's state advocacy mission (see "AOPA
Works to Save Connecticut Runway," p. 13). "As
http://www.aopa.org/fbopricing
AOPA Pilot Magazine - June 2018

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of AOPA Pilot Magazine - June 2018
