The Fees Don’t Stop Comin’

Unfortunately, city officials all over the country are being taught about landing fees, and it’s spreading at an alarming rate!

Aero-News friends over at Stop ADS-B Abuse have long profiled these infernal systems, where ADS-B data can track aircraft activity for fully-automated billing at participating airports. Right now, Arizona’s Falcon Field (FFZ) is looking to impose some landing fees of their own, and locals are putting up a fight. The Phoenix area is plush with flight training, but it’s a delicate ecosystem. Having a “Patient Zero” like Falcon Field could end with every airport in the city charging fees of their own, pushing training traffic towards “free” fields and clogging up the patch for everyone.

For those who haven’t made the pilgrimage to Phoenix before, it’s a very busy training scene. So much so, they’ve had to impose a delicate ballet between instructors and students around the only VOR and ILS duo in the area. (It’s called the “Stanfield Stack”, in case you want to see.) Students from every airport around are already swarming Falcon Field and the Nearby Deer Valley, as well as Scottsdale nearby. The prospect of landing fees should be met with horror for operators in the area–even if they aren’t the ones incurring an extra fifty bucks a flight, their field will get the traffic of FFZ regardless! 

The petition cites Falcon Field’s creation by the government itself in 1941, as well as its federally-funded, tax-paid public-use status. “The City of Mesa’s proposal to implement landing fees is a direct threat to the accessibility and affordability of this historic airport. Landing fees do NOT improve the community — they limit it,” reads their brief.

“We respectfully call on the City of Mesa to: 1. Withdraw the landing fee proposal immediately
 2. Engage with the aviation community before making decisions that impact safety, training, airport accessibility, and financial hardship to users. 3. Honor the historical legacy of Falcon Field and uphold its federal obligations as an open, public-use airport”

Anyone interested in supporting the cause can sign the petition at the link below.

FMI: www.change.org