Among the different rates being considered for the Aspen-Pitkin County Airport next year, one stuck out like a sore thumb to some county commissioners.
“Would you remind me why we have a decrease in the landing fees for [general aviation]?” Pitkin County Commissioner Francie Jacober asked the airport’s financial consultant during Wednesday’s Pitkin Board of County Commissioners meeting.
Ricondo & Associates, Inc. put together the proposed rates and charges that would apply to commercial airliners and private aircrafts flying into the Aspen-Pitkin County Airport next year and presented those numbers to the BOCC.
Bryan Elliott, director at Ricondo & Associates, Inc., said his consulting firm was bound by the Federal Aviation Administration’s rules and regulations governing the collection of landing fees at commercial airports.
As presented Wednesday, general aviation, which includes private aircrafts but not commercial airliners, would be charged $8.14 per 1,000 pounds to land at the Aspen-Pitkin County Airport next year — a 47-cent decrease compared to 2020.
Of the various rates and charges proposed, general aviation’s landing fees was the only one to see a decrease in cost next year.
The price of landing a commercial airliner, like one operated by United or American, at the airport year-round would cost $8.24 per 1,000 pounds. For a commercial airliner to utilize the airfield seasonally, and not year-round, it would be charged $11.53 per 1,000 pounds — a $1.66 increase from 2020.
“Under the FAA’s rates and charges policy, you have to set rates and charges that cover your cost of delivering the airfield,” Elliot said. “You can’t charge more than that unless the users agree to a higher charge … Particularly on the airfield, it has to be historical-cost based.”
Elliot projected the airfield’s operating and capital costs to approximately $7.6 million in 2022. However, as a result of COVID-19 relief funds, excise tax and rebates, the total cost may decline to $6.9 million next year.
“The only way that you could add to this would be to get airline and general-aviation user agreement to charge more than what is out there,” Elliot said.
The rates and charges like landing fees go toward services like pavement maintenance, snow removal and Airport Rescue and Fire Fighting (ARFF).
According to a BOCC memo, the FAA requires that airport rates and charges to cover those expenses must be fair and reasonable, not discriminatory and self-sustaining.
“I think raising it would be fair, not unreasonable and nondiscriminatory,” Clapper said of the landing fee, particularly for general aviation.
“And very just,” Jacober added. “We know that the impact of [general aviation], per passenger, is significantly higher than commercial in terms of our air, our ground — everything.”
The BOCC will resume its discussion of next year’s rates and charges for the airfield during its Dec. 15 meeting.
Approximately 80% of the aircrafts flying into the airport qualify as general aviation and 20% commercial.
“Wouldn’t it be great if the FAA recognized the actual cost — say for carbon, for our climate costs — of all this general aviation?” Commissioner Greg Poschman asked. “If the actual costs were included here, we probably would have higher landing fees for [general aviation] and for commercial, but somehow the actual environmental cost doesn’t seem to be included in this. And that would be a change that I would love to explore.”
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December 03, 2021 at 05:00PM
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Airport landing fees too low for some PitCo commissioners - Aspen Daily News
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