AOPA Pilot Magazine - February 2018 - 6

PRESIDENT'S POSITION

Shining a light

BY MARK BAKER
President and CEO

Ensuring airport access and transparency

Airport access has
been a top priority
for MARK BAKER
since he became
AOPA president
in 2013.

6 | AOPA PILOT February 2018

AOPA HAS BEEN HARD AT WORK collecting feedback
from members regarding their experiences with fees
and pricing at FBOs across the country.
Working to ensure the affordability of flying is
one of AOPA's core missions, and we believe that reasonable airport access is crucial to protecting general
aviation. While most FBOs are doing a great job, a
handful are imposing unreasonable fees and engaging in pricing practices that restrict access. When
airports accept federal funding through the Airport
Improvement Program, they also agree to comply
with certain grant obligations. Some of those obligations include requiring that lease-holding FBOs charge
reasonable and nondiscriminatory pricing for each
aeronautical service rendered. This requirement is
necessary to protect the airport for public use.
At the request of airport sponsors seeking to make
their facilities more welcoming to general aviation
pilots, AOPA in recent months developed guidelines
that will ensure pricing transparency, competitiveness,
and reasonable fees at FBOs; filed three FAR Part 13
complaints to the FAA to address the most egregious
airports we've found; and shed more light on the issue
through our reporting.
We've seen significant progress at a number of
airports. Paving the way for progress was a decision
by California's Orange County Board of Supervisors
to replace an FBO at John Wayne Airport following
numerous pricing complaints. In Utah, Heber City
recently revised its airport's minimum standards to
promote competition, allowing for the possibility,
among other things, for self-service avgas. Waukegan
National Airport in Illinois opened its south ramp
for free overnight transient tiedowns. And Syracuse
Hancock International Airport in New York is adding a second FBO, in an effort to promote competition.
But throughout this effort, it also became clear that
there's an enormous lack of transparency at certain
FBOs. Whether you're there for a quick turn, a hundred-dollar burger, or an overnight tiedown, there is
nothing pleasant about being charged fees for services
you didn't ask for or use, much less not being aware of
what you will be charged for before you arrive. And
there's absolutely no reason why a pilot flying to a public-access airport that receives federal funds should
not be able to easily access information about the fees
they will be expected to pay (and why).

In the digital age of technology and apps, we can
access the cost of goods and services with a few keystrokes on our phone. So why doesn't this exist for
general aviation?
AOPA took this lack of transparency as an opportunity to raise the bar and expand the information
provided to pilots through our updated online airport directory (www.aopa.org/airports), which will
be released in the coming months.
AOPA has been in contact with thousands of FBOs
across the country in order to expand our database of
airport and aviation business information. As a result,
we will soon be able to provide more detailed data,
including fees at many locations. However, we have
found that a small number of FBOs-at least 100 so
far-have not been willing to publicly disclose their
fees to AOPA and our members. We will highlight
those locations accordingly when we launch the directory. Our goal is to make it easy for pilots to access FBO
fee information long before having to pay the bill.
The FAA also recently weighed in on the debate
when it issued official guidance further supporting
our initiative for more transparent and reasonable
fees. The agency reminded airport sponsors that
receive federal funds that they "have a responsibility to ensure that FBO services and pricing practices
are reasonable and applied in a non-unjustly discriminatory manner."
The guidance lays out 11 ways that airport sponsors
can begin to take back control of their airport in the
face of fees and pricing practices that restrict access.
Some of those recommendations include establishing
self-serve fueling; making rates and charges public;
creating different classes of FBOs; updating rules and
minimum standards; and keeping exclusive control of
ramp space.
We will use the guidance and recommendations
to ensure airport sponsors understand their responsibilities and pilots know their rights, and this begins
with transparency.
The FAA's guidance specifically states, "to confirm
whether airport fees are reasonable and not unjust[ly]
discriminatory, the fees, rates, and charges should be
disclosed and made publicly available."
We agree.
AOPA
EMAIL mark@aopa.org

http://www.aopa.org/airports

AOPA Pilot Magazine - February 2018

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