Florida becomes second state to ban ADS-B-based billing

The law, which takes effect July 1, specifically prohibits airports from using ADS-B to charge landing fees for aircraft weighing less than 12,500 pounds—including touch and goes—as well as fees for coming “into a specified radius of the airspace” around an airport.

“This law is a step in the right direction,” said AOPA Southern Regional Manager Stacey Heaton. “Florida is one of the busiest states for general aviation—and also, in recent years, became a hotbed for airports that wanted to adopt ADS-B-based technology to collect fees.”

Montana passed a similar bill in May 2025, prohibiting the use of ADS-B to charge fees for aircraft under 9,000 pounds, and more than a dozen other states have introduced or are considering bills to prevent ADS-B from being used as a fee collection tool.

“We appreciate Florida lawmakers for understanding that ADS-B should only be used for its intended purpose—safety and airspace efficiency—but this law highlights one important fact: We need a national response to avoid a patchwork of laws across the country,” said AOPA Senior Vice President of Government Affairs and Advocacy Jim Coon.

AOPA has strongly endorsed the Pilot and Aircraft Privacy Act (PAPA) since its introduction in Congress by Sen. Ted Budd (R-N.C.) and Rep. Bob Onder (R-Mo.), who are both active GA pilots.

The Airspace Location and Enhanced Risk Transparency (ALERT) Act, which addresses safety concerns after the January 2025 midair collision over the Potomac River in Washington, D.C., between a regional jet and a military helicopter, passed the House on April 14. ALERT includes a number of provisions originally proposed in PAPA, including a national ban on using ADS-B to charge fees to pilots, and strengthens pilot privacy protection.

ALERT will now go to conference committee, where lawmakers will work out differences between it and the Rotorcraft Operations Transparency and Oversight Reform (ROTOR) Act—a safety bill also drafted in response to the January 2025 midair collision that passed the Senate in December.

“PAPA’s inclusion in the ALERT Act shows that Congress understands the stakes—pilots’ personal information is being used inappropriately, and ADS-B was never intended to be a fee collector. This practice is clearly a deterrent for pilots to equip with this safety technology and breaks trust in our system. And to be clear, the PAPA language does not prohibit airports from collecting ‘fair and reasonable’ fees; they just could not use ADS-B, a safety tool, to do so. We look forward to working with lawmakers to ensure these important protections make it into law,” said Coon.

At the same time, FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford told Flying that using ADS-B to charge fees to pilots is “not the intended use of ADS-B.” The FAA conveyed a similar message when the agency put forward the 2020 ADS-B Out mandate suggesting ADS-B would only be used for aviation safety and airspace efficiencies.

Moreover, NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy said in a February Senate hearing that she wants PAPA to become law, calling the practice of using ADS-B to charge fees to pilots something that “should be prohibited.”

“From statehouses to Capitol Hill to the leaders of the FAA and NTSB, the message is the same—using ADS-B to collect fees must stop. Now it’s time to make this happen,” said Coon.