Interesting question came up lately, and I'm wondering what some of y'all do about it.
How many airports charge GA flights over 12,500 for landing fees? And if so, how do you capture the flights for recording/billing purposes? I'd imagine most of us rely on FBOs to self-report, but how do you ensure the reports are accurate?
Thoughts welcome...
-Brandon
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Log in to leave a comment or Create an accountThere are a few other options out there for collecting flight data...Flight Aware is one of my favorites, but there are some other (pay) options that are advertised as being more effective. However, even these have flights that slip between the cracks.
I tend to agree with Rick, in that it is the FBO's responsibility by tying it in with their ability to sell fuel. However an adversarial relationship between the FBO and airport authority may hinder the process, and lead to further issues as well. From what I've seen here (and at a few other airports) landing fees and fuel flowage numbers tend to be self-reported and on the honor system...
EAUCS,
At MLB we placed a paragraph in our minimum standards for FBOs that they must act as our "Collection agent when requested by the Authority, with respect to landing fees applicable to any aircraft arriving at the Airport, excluding aircraft owned by or leased to a certificated air carrier holding an Agreement with the Authority for use of the Airport."
Placing the requirement in your minimum standards ties the landing fee collection to the FBOs ability to sell fuel. Most aircraft owners/operators understand that airports charge a landing fee to pay for upkeep of the airport. Unless you are charging an outrageous landing fee my guess is that something else is driving customers away such as fuel prices not being in line with other airports in your region.
This is an interesting discussion and I hope you receive more posts in the coming days. We at EAU currently charge GA landing fees to turbine powered aircraft. Our FBO used to collect them for a small fee but recently refused to continue collection because they felt it was driving customers away. The Airport has started trying to track aircraft using sources like Flight Aware and our aiport maintenance staff but it is much more labor intensive to bill aircraft owners than to just have the FBO collect the payment when they pay for fuel. Our FBO is continuing to make the argument that we should not collect GA landing fees at all.
We rely on the FBOs to collect the landing fees for GA aircraft over 12,500 lbs. The FBOs are allowed to keep a small handling fee for doing our collection. We do audits once in a while but generally we rely on the FBOs to be honest, which in our case I do believe they are accurate.
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