Landing Fees Take Center Stage at Two U.S. Airports

Atlanta-area DeKalb Peachtree Airport (KPDK) will become the latest airport to introduce a landing fee program for general aviation (GA) aircraft with mtows exceeding 9,000 pounds on April 1. And Arizona’s Mesa Falcon Field Airport (KFFZ) is still weighing its necessity for all GA aircraft, even those with mtows below 6,000 pounds.

KPDK said it is implementing this change to support ongoing maintenance, future development, and long-term financial sustainability in line with FAA grant assurance requirements. A fee schedule was established of $4 per 1,000 pounds for transient aircraft between 9,000 and 20,000 pounds, while those above 20,000 pounds will pay $6 per 1,000 pounds. Based aircraft, as well as aeromedical flights, will be exempt, according to the airport authority.

These landing fees are imposed by the airport, separate from any FBO charges imposed by the ground handlers at KPDK. As such, FBOs will not be responsible for collecting them, and they cannot be waived with fuel purchase minimums or other services. Operators will be invoiced via Planepass by Vector Airport Systems.

Meanwhile, opposition to the planned implementation of landing fees at KFFZ is growing. The airport proposed the fees to make up $2.6 million in annual operating costs, which had been offset for the past several years by revenue from airport property sales.

But some believe the move was also motivated in part by complaints from the local community over KFFZ’s increasing traffic and resulting noise. Over the past several years, activity on the field has soared, with 475,000 operations logged last year, the bulk of which came from aircraft of the more than a dozen flight schools using KFFZ.

Unlike the fees at KPDK, which apply only to aircraft exceeding 9,000 pounds, the latest proposed fee schedule at KFFZ also charges $20.35 per landing for based airplanes ($24.35 for transient airplanes) under 6,000 pounds. This would increase costs for flight training activities at the airport, costs that would likely be passed along to flight students.

With a vote by the city council now scheduled for March 23, airport stakeholders acknowledged the community concerns in a letter to Mesa elected officials but asked that the fees be rejected, saying they would affect the entire airport economy.

“A steep landing fee aimed at the highest-frequency operations does not solve the underlying issue,” the letter stated. “It shifts training to other airports, concentrates traffic elsewhere in the region, and leaves Mesa with fewer jobs and less workforce development.”

While offering no alternative suggestions, the group, which includes several of the KFFZ-based flight instruction providers, asked the officials to provide other options “that are balanced and workable.”