Are Landing Fees Legal?

Sometimes landing fees are charged at privately owned airports, and the monies collected from them pay for the upkeep of facilities. such as the electricity, hanger maintenance, tie-downs, chocks, mowing of the grass, etc. The airport is privately owned but considered public use, which means the owner pays for its upkeep but allows pilots to use it. It passes on the costs of doing business to the pilots.

Usually AirNav.com or the chart supplement will have a note about a landing fee. Some are initiated through an app that records the aircraft's identification through its ADS-B signature, and the owner gets a bill in the mail. These are not foolproof, however, as sometimes just flying by the airport can trigger a bill because the system that uses geofence technology isn't calibrated correctly. In those situations, it is often up to the pilot to prove they did not land at the airport. 

FlightAware.com, which shows where an aircraft took off from and where it landed, can come in very handy in these cases, especially when it has been parked in a hangar for the better part of a month.

Be advised you can also run into landing fees imposed by airport businesses—even if you are just there to pick up or drop off a passenger, or use the bathroom. It can be a rude shock to stop for less than 10 minutes and find out the owner of the FBO is charging you $100 for use of their ramp. Sometimes they waive the fee if you fuel up. There's really no recourse if you feel the fee is unfair with the exception of leaving a scathing review on Yelp or AirNav.com warning other pilots.

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