Advocacy teamwork halts Ohio landing fee proposal
Zanesville ordinance 'postponed indefinitely'
City officials in Zanesville, Ohio, opted on May 27 to indefinitely postpone a final vote on an ordinance proposed in March that would establish the first landing fees ever charged by the city's historic airport. The delay, which could become permanent, followed a concerted effort by local pilots and AOPA to marshal focused, commonsense arguments against the measure.
Zanesville Municipal Airport was established in 1947, just east of the pioneer town that grew from a stagecoach stop around the confluence of the Licking and Muskingum rivers. While the airport 5 nautical miles east of the distinctive Y-shaped bridge over the two rivers hosted Trans World Airlines Douglas DC–3s in its early days, commercial service ended in the 1970s, and the airport has been exclusively used by general aviation since—including as a base for charter operations flying organ transplant teams.
"It's a business model they are proud of," said AOPA Great Lakes Regional Manager Kyle Lewis.
So it caught many by surprise when the city, the airport sponsor, proposed Ordinance 2025-21 in March, which included a $50 landing fee charged to every aircraft. "We were all a bit floored," Lewis recalled. "We also knew we had to move quickly."
Lewis sent Mayor Donald Mason a letter on March 6, expressing AOPA's many concerns about the proposed fees, including reducing safety by discouraging flight training, raising the barrier to entry into an industry already struggling with rising cost, and the potential to violate federal grant assurances. Lewis also sent an email message to AOPA members in the region, urging a show of support for keeping the airport fee-free. Members responded, though most advised that their emails to city officials drew automated replies that justified the fee based on a "deficit" that turned out to be a routine local investment in job-supporting infrastructure.
The city budgets $250,000 per year for airport operations, which pays for two full-time employees, as well as the local match for federal grants, utilities, and general maintenance. Not coincidentally, the airport counts about 5,000 landings every year, and charging $50 for each would generate $250,000 in revenue (setting aside, for the moment, the fact that far fewer pilots would opt to land at Zanesville if they were charged $50 each).
The email messages did not achieve the desired effect, at least among members of the City Council. Lewis gained traction engaging local members, particularly Nick Crate, who stepped up to fill a vacancy as the Airport Support Network volunteer.
The City Council made changes to the draft ordinance, apparently in an effort to make the fees seem more equitable, though actually making matters much worse.
The new fee schedule would have charged an annual $150 fee for all aircraft that weigh less than 1,000 pounds, as well as for all flight instructors who use the airport to train students, regardless of the number of operations. Aircraft weighing 2,000 to 5,000 pounds were to pay $15 per landing, with higher fees for heavier aircraft—in all cases applied to based aircraft as well as visitors, a highly unusual practice, if not unique in the nation. No other airport in Ohio charges a landing fee for aircraft that weigh less than 6,000 pounds.
At a subsequent City Council meeting, Crate and other pilots echoed Lewis's longer list of concerns, including the negative impact on safety and pilot proficiency at the airport. The mayor also further compromised the city's legal basis for assessing landing fees by expressing a desire to use proceeds from the new landing fees to create a youth sports program, which would be a clear violation of another federal grant assurance that requires airport sponsors to use airport revenue for airport operations or improvements.
While the city delayed a final vote until May 27, local officials still appeared determined to move forward with the fee.
Lewis worked with Zanesville Aviation owner Joel Downing to organize a town hall meeting at the FBO ahead of the planned final vote, and drew about 70 pilots from across Ohio to hear the latest.
Lewis wrote to the mayor and City Council again on May 15, thanking them for "the previous consideration to modify the landing fee ordinance," but noting the modified schedule was "still problematic."
While it is legal for airports to charge landing fees under federal law and regulations, there are stipulations that Lewis explained in detail, including a particular grant assurance prohibiting discrimination. Becoming the only airport in the state to charge a landing fee for aircraft under 6,000 pounds, and possibly the only airport in the nation that does not exempt based aircraft from landing fees, fits the grant assurance definition of "discrimination" well. Moreover, Lewis noted, the fees would be self-defeating: "The proposed landing fees offered by Zanesville will decimate operations at the airport. This is not hyperbole, but fact."
Lewis and Crate remained in close contact as the vote approached; the FBO contemplated legal action to block the landing fees as a violation of lease terms.
On May 27, rather than vote, the City Council postponed consideration "indefinitely."
It is not yet clear what will happen next.
"It seems that the city may try to revise the landing fees to be more reasonable, or the topic may be dead. Time will tell, and AOPA will keep an ear out," Lewis said. "More importantly, this victory exemplifies the professional, organized, and activated advocacy that AOPA delivers. This was a coordinated effort to educate our membership on the issue, ask our members to actively participate, and we followed developments at the local level. No other aviation organization does that."
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