Michigan Airport Landing Fees and the Growing Threat to Open GA Access
Manistee County Blacker Airport voted August 17 to impose landing fees effective October 1 - a move AOPA calls 'extremely concerning' with implications far beyond Michigan.
On August 17, the Manistee Blacker Airport Authority voted to implement landing fees for certain aircraft at Manistee County Blacker Airport in northwest Michigan. Those fees take effect October 1. The Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association called the move “extremely concerning” - measured language for AOPA, and a signal the organization is treating this seriously.
Why a Small Michigan Airport Vote Matters Nationally
Manistee County Blacker is a general aviation airport. It’s not a commercial hub with airline terminals and ground handling contracts. It’s the kind of airport that connects rural communities, supports flight training, enables agricultural aviation, provides medevac access, and serves the transient pilot stopping for fuel. Airports like it form the practical backbone of the national airspace system in ways that rarely make headlines - until something like this happens.
The concern isn’t just about one airport. Every unchallenged precedent at a federally-assisted airport becomes a permission slip for the next authority looking for revenue. A pilot in Texas or Oregon who has never heard of Manistee should care about this vote for exactly that reason.
How FAA Grant Assurances Are Supposed to Protect GA Access
Most small public-use airports, including airports like Manistee, have accepted federal funding through the FAA’s Airport Improvement Program (AIP). That funding comes with binding obligations called grant assurances. One of the core assurances requires the airport to be available for public use on reasonable terms and without unjust discrimination.
The FAA has long interpreted this language to restrict landing fees that would burden or discourage general aviation access. It’s not an absolute prohibition, but it carries real legal weight. When an airport authority implements fees - particularly fees targeting specific categories of aircraft - it invites scrutiny of whether those fees comply with the assurances the airport accepted when it took federal money. AOPA has pursued legal and regulatory remedies under these frameworks before, and successfully.
The Budget Pressure Is Real, But Landing Fees Are Often Self-Defeating
Airport managers facing tight budgets aren’t wrong to look at transient traffic and ask whether those aircraft should contribute to operating costs. Runway maintenance, lighting, staffing - it adds up, and local funding mechanisms haven’t kept pace. The financial pressure is legitimate.
But landing fees at small GA airports tend to undermine the very economic case for the airport’s existence. When it becomes expensive to land at a field, pilots divert to the next airport. Transient traffic drops. The FBO loses business. Fuel flowage declines. The local restaurant closes. The community that was supposed to benefit from having an airport sees less of that benefit. The revenue-generating logic of landing fees frequently collapses under its own weight at airports of this scale.
The Longer Pattern of GA Access Erosion
General aviation has been fighting a sustained battle against diminishing airport access for decades. Airports have been closed. Curfews imposed. Operations restricted. Every one of those fights started as a local vote before it became a national trend. Airport policy changes one authority meeting at a time, and that’s precisely why local engagement matters.
AOPA’s Airport Support Network deploys volunteer pilots in communities across the country to attend airport authority meetings, build relationships with local officials, and flag exactly this kind of development before it becomes entrenched. If you’re connected to the Manistee airport community, attending authority meetings and making the case - politely, factually - for open access is the most direct action available right now.
What Pilots Everywhere Should Do Now
Beyond Manistee, this is a prompt to ask a basic question: do you know who sits on your local airport authority or commission? Do you know when they meet? Most of these meetings are open to the public. Most officials respond to constituent engagement, and most are not hostile to aviation - they simply don’t always understand what their decisions mean for the flying community.
The grant assurance framework exists because Congress recognized, decades ago, that publicly funded airports should serve the public. That principle requires active defense every time it’s tested.
AOPA is the best source for updates on this situation as October 1 approaches. Monitor developments at aopa.org.
Key Takeaways
- The Manistee Blacker Airport Authority voted August 17 to impose landing fees, effective October 1
- AOPA has characterized the move as “extremely concerning” and is monitoring the situation closely
- Airports that accepted FAA Airport Improvement Program funding are bound by grant assurances requiring reasonable, non-discriminatory public access - landing fees can violate those obligations
- Landing fees at small GA airports frequently backfire economically by reducing the transient traffic, fuel sales, and FBO activity that sustain the local airport ecosystem
- Every local airport policy precedent can propagate nationally; pilot engagement at airport authority meetings is the most direct line of defense
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