AOPA is calling on its 300,000 members to contact their elected officials to stop ADS-B from being used as an ATM for local airport authorities. The groups says it wants members to urge their senators and representatives to support the Pilot and Aircraft Privacy Act that would prohibit the use of ADS-B data to bill landing fees and other charges. More than 100 airports are doing that through third-party vendors who use their own software to collect the signals and trace the ownership of aircraft that touch down at their clients’ airports. Rep. Bob Onder, R-Mo., who is sponsoring the House bill along with Sen. Ted Budd, R-N.C.) in the Senate said the practice has safety implications. “If ADS-B is being used by, I’ll say, bad actors to monetize airport landing fees, that’s going to discourage folks from employing ADS-B or adopting ADS-B in the first place or turning it off,” he said in a statement.
AOPA Senior Vice President of Government Affairs and Advocacy Jim Coon noted that several states are following Montana in enacting laws against using ADS-B for landing fee collection but a national response would be better. “While each of these efforts helps improve aviation safety, a patchwork of state laws could create confusion among pilots,” Coon said. The billing services use publicly available data from tracking services like FlightRadar24 and FlightAware and the intention is not to interfere with those and other websites. He noted that when the FAA implemented ADS-B mandates for most controlled airspace, the agency pledged that the data would only be used to enhance aviation safety. The bill also addresses some other concerns that have arisen in five years of experience with the technology.
The bill would expand existing provisions that are in place to prevent ADS-B data from being the only evidence used by government officials to pursue prosecution of non-criminal offenses, which would cover most FAA infractions. “When the ADS-B mandate went into effect in 2020, the FAA said this important technology would only be used for safety and airspace efficiency. Instead, we’re now seeing it used in ways that discourage adoption,” said Darren Pleasance, AOPA president and CEO. The bill would give the government latitude to “authorize other uses of ADS-B data,” however.
I don’t disagree with the basic need for such Regulation, however, I also see a potential unintended consequence. Some airport sponsors will still view airports as “ATM’s” with or without ADS-B derived revenue. Denied use of revenue from those individual flight operations, some may increase hangar fees — which have already reached nosebleed levels at some locations — causing some users to have to give up their hangars. I know of one popular airport in Florida where people are leaving because they can no longer afford their hangars. Sponsors think aircraft owners are rich playboys ripe for the picking. If sponsors don’t get it one way, they’ll find another. At several Florida airports, ADS-B fees are being used to ‘shoo’ frequent operations of flight schools away. That tenet needs to be a part of any such Regulation, as well. In fact, I believe the genesis for this proposed Regulation came from that problem.
Beyond the ADS-B problem, airport sponsors need to be reminded that ALL revenue derived from the airport need to be used FOR the airport. Any sponsor who receives AIP funds signs up for this requirement as one of the guarantees it agrees to. They need to be reminded of this specifically IMHO. I know of an airport which allowed a massive solar PV farm to occupy land it controls and then sidetracked some of the attendant revenue for non-airport purposes.
ADS-B is not a toll pass. Bravo.
You mean local governments are using taxpayer funds to invade privacy and bilk pilots out of even more money? Shocking.
ADS-B Out was sold and mandated as a safety and separation tool, to improve ATC surveillance and airspace efficiency.
DOT puts the ADS-B program and related broadcast services costs at about $4.4 to $4.5B through 2035.
AOPA says GA owners spent more than $500M to comply with the 2020 mandate, based on the plain understanding this was about safety and efficiency, not a fee collection scheme.Turning that safety broadcast into a fee collection hook is absurd.
Here’s another perspective. I’m an active pilot and the volunteer manager of a small municipal airport in the rural Northeast. We have 30 based aircraft in private hangars, sell about 10,000 gallons of 100LL per year at competitive market rates, and charge $10 per night for private singles and $15 per night for private twins. We charge landing fees and higher parking fees for the few commercial aircraft that visit.
This is not a wealthy airport making heaps of money on overpriced fuel and outrageous fees. Quite the opposite. We run on a shoestring budget, have zero employees, and local government puts money INTO the airport just to keep it open and safe.
Our fees are well posted. Since the airport is largely unattended, payment is on the honor system, with several easy ways to pay. In reality, only about 50% of private GA aircraft and 25% of commercial aircraft pay their fees without being invoiced. I wrote software that collects ADS-B data to track landings and parking duration, and periodically invoice those who haven’t paid. About half of them pay after being billed.
I’m just trying to keep the airport open and the lights on for pilots like you. The need to collect fees isn’t going away just because a law says airports can’t use ADS-B data to bill. Small airports may go out of business, while larger airports will simply install camera systems to capture tail numbers and bill anyway.
Maybe the bill we need is one requiring pilots to pay the fees they owe, billed or not. At least then we’d lose fewer small airports.
Privacy matters. So does keeping airports open. If pilots won’t pay what they owe, no technology ban will save the airports they depend on.
Amen.
At what price pleasure? It’s a mystery to me that there are so many wonderful small airports scattered throughout the YouessofA in the first place. Tiny communities not populated by a bunch of rich people bear the burden of keeping up pretty nice paved airstrips. I camped on the ramp at the megalopolis of Faith, SC and Ekalaka, MT because their double-wide “inn” didn’t match the conveniences of my air mattress. Neither charge a landing fee, BTW. There are so many intrusions to our privacy these days that I don’t see getting in a lather about being outed for not settling a $10 obligation. You can afford a twin but you welch on spending $15?
An added data point. I am long past being paid to fly, so I get to choose where I’m going to land … so if this ADS-B finance bonanza keeps up, I guess I’ll just remove the ADS-B from my planes and just avoid going to CBA and CCA airports. Poor solution, huh?