Support Your Airport
Pressures on general aviation airports continue to mount across the country. Local pilot support is critical in protecting community airports from development pressures, complaints from anti-airport groups, and scarce resources from local governments. Here’s how you can help keep your airport open and accessible to GA.
Join or Start an Airport Support Group
Bringing other pilots and airport supporters together is a great way to protect your airport. An airport support group can promote your airport through hosting an open house, fly-in, or other event. But it also serves as an organization that is ready to rally political support when the airport is threatened.
Volunteer to Protect Your Airport
Get to know your AOPA Airport Support Network volunteer or become a volunteer if your airport doesn’t have one. Political pressures, greed, and even pilot apathy are the top killers of GA airports. That’s why AOPA relies on dedicated pilots like you to be GA’s first line of defense. You and the AOPA Airport Support Network are AOPA’s local eyes and ears. You alert us to dangers that require monitoring or action. And you educate your neighbors and local leaders about the benefits of your community airport. Join with the pilots at more than 2,000 other airports who are working with AOPA to protect America’s public-use airports.
Patronize Airport Businesses
Successful businesses at your airport play a vital role in the financial viability of the airport itself! Local governments that own airports are more likely to protect them and make improvements if they see them as the center of a thriving community. Airports that receive federal funds are expected to be as financially self-sufficient as possible, so patronize your local FBO whenever you can, and take your friends to the airport restaurant—that next lunch or tank of avgas could play a role in keeping the airport open!
Host an Airport Open House
As GA pilots, we appreciate the valuable role our local airport plays in the community. GA airports provide access to so much more than personal air transportation—emergency medical flights, agricultural crop spraying, search-and-rescue flights, overnight air package delivery. All are made possible by the airport in your area. Unfortunately, too few people outside of aviation circles understand what really happens at an airport, or how aviation affects their lives. An airport open house allows you to showcase your airport and help your neighbors understand its importance to their daily lives. And once they gain a better understanding of GA and community airports, they just might decide to give learning to fly a try.
