NATA Responds to Informal Part 13 Complaints Filed Against Three Airports
Washington, DC, August 29, 2017 – Today, the National Air Transportation Association (NATA) sent letters in response to recently filed FAA Part 13 complaints alleging “egregious FBO pricing practices” at Florida’s Key West International Airport (EYW), Illinois’s Waukegan National Airport (UGN), and North Carolina’s Asheville Regional Airport (AVL).
“The assertions made in these complaints reflect a misunderstanding of a number of key points related to the economics of aviation businesses: the pricing of aeronautical services, industry consolidation and the airport sponsor-tenant relationship,” stated NATA Executive Vice President Bill Deere.
The general aviation community has questioned the necessity of this campaign, as illustrated in three recent articles that discuss the initiative’s intellectual underpinnings. The articles conclude that FBO pricing has evolved not as a way to maximize revenue from pilots, but rather in response to the changing reality of general aviation.
“The FBO services market is and remains a very competitive industry. Those within the aviation industry fully understand that FBOs compete vigorously with each other on price, service, and quality of facilities,” Deere continued. “The interpretation and application of facts in the complaint of Grant Assurances, and the meaning of ‘reasonable, and not unjustly discriminatory,’ is wrong in both characterization and in the law.”
“This action is disappointing, coming at a time when the general aviation community is confronting a serious effort to privatize our nation’s air traffic control system,” stated NATA President Martin H. Hiller. “General aviation, as we know it in this nation, is under a real threat. We need to stand united right now and not be concerned with distractions like this."
