AOPA Action: Fighting unreasonable fees
AOPA announces Airport Access Watch List
The Watch List includes 10 public-access airports that, based on member complaints and research, AOPA believes may be imposing fees on pilots that are so unreasonable that they restrict access. All have only one fixed-base operator that controls all available general aviation ramp space, and all receive federal funds through the Airport Improvement Program—meaning the locations are subject to FAA grant assurances requiring reasonable and nondiscriminatory pricing. AOPA filed three FAA Part 13 complaints against similar airports last year. This time, AOPA hopes first to begin a dialogue with leaders at each airport to determine what can be done to make the locations more welcoming to pilots, and to ensure the airports are in compliance with federal grant obligations. AOPA has two outstanding Part 13 complaints regarding FBO pricing and airport access at Asheville Regional Airport in North Carolina and Key West International Airport in Florida.
Several airports have agreed with AOPA’s assessments on egregious FBO pricing practices, and some of those airports have unilaterally taken steps to correct these situations. AOPA calls them self-help airports, and they include Orange County, California; Waukegan, Illinois; Syracuse, New York; Santa Barbara, California; Heber City, Utah; and Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
AOPA General Counsel Ken Mead said he is hopeful the dialogue with the 10 airports on the Watch List will result in their doing what other self-help airports have done, which includes identifying and promoting transient parking areas and facilitating various forms of competition.
ASN Volunteer of the Month
Charlie Skelton
Tweed-New Haven Airport, Connecticut (HVN)
General aviation advocate Charlie Skelton has been AOPA’s Airport Support Network volunteer at Tweed-New Haven (HVN) Airport in Connecticut since the ASN program started in 1998. Earlier this year, Skelton alerted Sean Collins, AOPA’s Eastern regional manager, about state legislation proposed to permanently close the crosswind Runway 14/32 at Tweed-New Haven. His call resulted in AOPA action that turned into letters to the state legislature opposing the proposal. Skelton’s actions to keep Collins informed proved invaluable to AOPA’s state advocacy mission (see “AOPA Works to Save Connecticut Runway,” p. 13). “As a regional manager, my success is only as good as the resources I fill my advocacy toolbox with. I am fortunate to have a number of great ASN volunteers across the Eastern Region like Charlie Skelton who work every day to ensure the safety and preservation of their airports,” said Collins. Skelton is an airline transport pilot and CFI with airplane (single and multiengine), rotorcraft, instrument (airplane and rotor), and glider ratings.
BAKER ON THE NEWS: “Most FBOs are doing a great job, but there are some locations unreasonably restricting access. We are working for transparency, access, and competition where possible, and we aren’t asking for anything free, just fairness.” —AOPA President Mark BakerACTION IN THE STATES
AOPA works to save Connecticut runway
AOPA is urging the airport authority in New Haven, Connecticut, not to jeopardize the city’s federal airport aid—and flight safety—by closing a crosswind runway at Tweed-New Haven Airport. Permanently closing Runway 14/32, which has been in temporary disuse, is a provision of state legislation to establish a solar-power pilot program at Connecticut’s municipal airports.
Web: www.aopa.org/pilot/connecticut
AOPA opposes Rhode Island bill
AOPA testified in opposition to a Rhode Island bill to cut greenhouse gases by imposing a carbon fee on fossil fuels, citing the aviation industry’s efforts to develop alternative energy and noting the harm a new tax could do to the local aviation industry’s competitiveness. The proposal was tabled after a hearing in the Senate Environment and Agriculture Committee.
Web: www.aopa.org/pilot/rhodeisland
AOPA opposes North Carolina airport closure
AOPA is urging officials of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill to reverse a November 2017 decision to close historic university-run Horace Williams Airport, which UNC students have mobilized to keep open with a petition drive and a letter-writing campaign directed at state lawmakers. The planned closure—first contemplated in 2002 but blocked in the legislature—was approved by a resolution of the university’s board of trustees, opening the way for construction of a satellite campus.
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