Story ID: 
AOPA Cancels Chicagoland Airport Complaint
By: Curt Epstein
Caption: The pilot organization signaled satisfaction in improvements in fees for transient aircraft and lower fuel costs at the airport
Word Count: 196
The Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association (AOPA) has withdrawn its official FAA complaint against Waukegan National Airport following what it describes as efforts taken to make it “more accessible and friendlier to pilots.” In a letter to the Illinois Department of Transportation and the FAA, the organization cited the airport management’s “concerted and transparent actions to improve the accessibility of the airport to transient users by offering alternative ramp parking and facilitating lower fuel prices.”

In response to AOPA’s allegations that Signature Flight Support, the lone FBO provider on the field, was forcing operators to buy "unreasonably priced fuel and pay for services that were not required," the airport announced in December that it would offer free tie-downs for transient aircraft and a pedestrian gate to access the ramp, so passengers were not forced to transit the FBO.

Signature also reportedly reduced the price of its self-service avgas facility by more than a dollar per gallon at the airport. Also cited in AOPA’s complaint last August were North Carolina’s Asheville Regional Airport and Key West International Airport in Florida, both of which are also single-FBO locations.