Transient Landing Fee System

The Airport is exploring the possibility of enacting landing fees for all transient aircraft. In February 2023, Vector Airport Systems and Virtower announced a global strategic partnership. The pairing of these two companies provides the technology for airports to have the technological means to consider landing fees rather than relying upon dedicated airport staff. This system is being considered for implementation by a number of airports in Arizona and across the nation.

The initial presentation of this system was made at the March 6, 2024, Airport Commission meeting by Vector Airport Systems.   The airport anticipates conducting multiple meetings through the airport commission and airport noise working group to discuss and address this item before presenting the system pros and cons to City Council for discussion and consideration for adoption by the City of Cottonwood.

For more information on the Vector system, visit: https://www.vector-us.com/planepass.

March 6, 2024: PowerPoint Presentation & Presentation Video


Transient Landing Fee System Discussion Process:

  1. Further meetings will be scheduled to discuss and solicit input.
  2. Public input/questions can be submitted to the airport.
  3. Discussion of the landing fee rate methodology, consistent with FAA guidelines, will be conducted.
  4. All information will be posted to the Airport website for public access.
  5. A SWOT analysis will be drafted to show the pros & cons.

Pilot, User, and Citizen Comments & Questions:

Please submit all questions or comments regarding the Transient Landing Fee System to:  Airport.Noise@cottonwoodaz.gov


As part of the Airport’s research into the potential establishment of transient landing fees for all aircraft, the Airport has asked for public input regarding the system to Vector Airport Systems in addition to questions asked by the Airport Commission and the Airport Manager.

What General Aviation airports are currently using the system to charge landing fees?  Of those, are any charging all transients such as we are exploring at P52 or just those over 12,500 lbs.?

Sample partial list of GA airports that are general aviation clients: AGC, APC, BAF, BDR, BED, BFA, BFI, BTL, CMA, COE, DIJ, HAF, HTO, HWV, OXR, RYY, SMO, SQL, and TRK. Yes, several airports charge all transients including APC, BDR, HWV, and AGC. These all apply a fixed fee between $7 and $16.50 per landing.

For Virtower – Will airports be able to update the based aircraft report to ADD aircraft in addition to currently being able to delete from the system?  I am concerned about the lag time in the past for the based aircraft list to be updated.  This may result in new based tenants possibly receiving bills for landings that they shouldn’t.

This is for Virtower.

As a Class E airport, I am concerned about transient pilots turning off their transponders/ADS-B as they are not required to operate the transponder in Class E (ADS-B is required to be on at all times if so equipped) to avoid paying landing fees.  How will the system account for this type of operator? My primary concern is a potential degradation to safety by pilots purposefully choosing to turn off their transponder in an effort to avoid paying the fee.  I already observe this situation with some pilots.  This will also need to be an education effort on our part to help minimize pilots turning off their systems.

We have not seen pilots turning off their transponders at our airports regularly. An education effort should help as well as a reminder that the FAA requires that ADS-B equipped aircraft must have their transponders on. I believe all the aircraft operated by ERAU are equipped with ADS-B.  We do also use multiple data sources that include sources other than ADSB.

Regarding the rates, the majority of Cottonwood’s traffic is transient touch & go operations from ERAU and other flight schools.  How do we establish a rate that is fair for the repetitive operations versus the traditional transient operators?

We can survey other airports that bill touch & go operations. It is difficult to conclude what is fair, but being consistent is the application is usually key and the rate can be adjusted if required. Our billing process typically requires that every operation be billed as opposed to a billing scheme where only specific touch & go’s are billed and some are waived such as only charging for a certain # within a certain time frame.

Will we be able to charge different rates based on time of day for the operation?  e.g. 0800-2000 & 2001-0759 since the majority of our flight training operations (and noise complaints) occur between 0700 and 1700 daily.

Yes, we support daytime and nighttime fees. Different day/night rates are justified as the cost of servicing operations during these different periods implies different costs. Typically, nighttime fees are higher than daytime fees due to the cost of electricity and lighting.

Cottonwood Regional Medical Center is adjacent to the airport with a dedicated heliport.  We also have two medical helicopter operators staging helicopters on the airport plus transient fixed wing medical flights.   How are these types of operations accounted for since they rotate a fleet of helicopters to/from the area? How are medical operators being charged (or not) or other such operations such as law enforcement or military operations?

We maintain an exemptions list that will include the regular medical helicopters by registration number. We can also exclude aircraft operations by specific operator.

How many Part 13 or Part 16 complaints have been filed with FAA about the use of your system and the imposition of transient landing fees?

None.  

What pushback has been received from aviation groups such as AOPA, EAA, etc. or FAA?

We haven’t seen any direct resistance from any of these agencies. Landing fees must be applied fairly and consistently and are an accepted method for airports to generate revenue.

Would the landing fees be applicable to all the Embry Riddle planes that use the Cottonwood Airport?

Yes.  The transient landing fee will apply to all aircraft that do not pay to store their aircraft at the airport.