Dallas Love Field to Implement “Fair Share” GA Landing Fees

BrianNC

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The City of Dallas says it’s time general aviation traffic using Love Field (DAL) begins paying its fair share of what it costs the city to operate the airport. Until a new policy begins July 1, general aviation operators pay for airport services through a fuel tax, a portion of which is directed back to the airport, while commercial airline traffic pay additional fees based on aircraft landing weight and their amount of airport usage.

That’s all changing on July 1 when the City of Dallas will add a new landing fee for general aviation operations, in addition to the fuel tax contribution, that Assistant City Manager Jody Puckett said in a statement could run as high as $5.80 per 1,000 pounds of aircraft weight...

https://www.flyingmag.com/dallas-love-field-to-implement-fair-share-ga-landing-fees?enews052918
 
Ahh was fixing to post the same article but ya beat me to it Brian. ;)
 
If I kept my plane there, I would have a problem, but I don't. If my home airport started with landing fees, I am guessing that as a tenant, I would be exempted. The argument is that airports cost a lot, which may be true, but so do roads, public parks, boat ramps, etc. It may be an old argument, but. I pay a lot in taxes. All of these things are taxpayer supported in some way or another. I would like to see something from my taxes that benefits me.
 
Cheaper than anything Signature or Million Air charges for various airports around the country in "fees"... not that I'm a fan of these silly fees.

As @Clark1961 pointed out, on a topic somewhat unrelated to aviation, off-line, the other day... the move to use "fees" for various things, and pretend they're not "taxes" is mostly because many "taxes" can be written off at various other taxation levels. Fees, never. It's just a way for government to double, triple, quadruple (keep going...) dip into people's wallets after making the deal that "taxes" would be deductible off of other "taxes".
 
Taxes need a vote. Fees don't.

Depends on the jurisdiction. Some have given themselves the power to tax to certain levels without voter approval.

Here in CO, we passed a law that says they can't raise taxation ever without voter approval, quite a number of years ago, just to make sure.

They turned everything into a "fee" almost overnight.

There's literally no room left on the back of your vehicle registration card for any more fees to be placed on there, even as they've made the font smaller and smaller, and numerous fees on those aren't driving related at all... it was just a convenient place to add fees to, that they didn't have anywhere else to put them, or a way to collect them. One is cancer related, another is a training fee for law enforcement, the list goes on and on.

I'm amazed they don't just put a "Governor wants a steak dinner" fee on the back of the vehicle registration... nobody pays any attention to it at all.

The side-effect of passing the law and everything turning into fees, is it actually TAUGHT them how to hide things from the public. They're scumbags, all of them.
 
I could actually see this costing Love money in the end. Probably not a substantial amount but still.

Pilots might end up choosing to use other area airports instead and they would not only miss out on the "fees", they wouldn't get any fuel tax money either.
 
I bet the fees they collect from those willing to pay will exceed what they lose. It will take a couple of Skyhawks avoiding the field to erase the fee from my partners 421: he won’t care about a 40.00 fee and I bet most of the jet owners won’t care either.

I think the risk is that the pilot of the jet or 421 will avoid the fee if they are flying their personal small plane. They must get find another field and FBO with no fees they like better and convince the boss to let them land elsewhere.

I have always been impressed with how well the big FBO’s treat me when I arrive in a small piston (I know others have not been treated as well). I finally decided that they don’t make money off of me, but they recognize that tomorrow I might be piloting a citation and they wan that business.

Jim
 
It's an utter BS smokescreen; the city has granted a no-competitive-bid contract (with a multi-million dollar city grant included) to a former city staffer to develop over ten million dollars worth of new hangar infrastructure at city-owned Dallas Executive Airport (KRBD). The new fees have been sold to council as a means of driving traffic from Love to Redbird. It won't work, but the fix is in.

Traffic driven from KDAL will mostly go to fields other than KRBD - I imagine Addison and Mesquite will be the key beneficiaries.

By the way, Addison is not a low-cost field, but there is no landing fee there.
 
Pilots might end up choosing to use other area airports instead and they would not only miss out on the "fees", they wouldn't get any fuel tax money either.
Politicians enact a tax to discourage a disfavored behavior, and call it a 'sin tax'. Then they enact a tax on a favored behavior to raise revenue, and are bewildered when that behavior declines or goes away, leaving them without the revenue they projected.
 
It's an utter BS smokescreen; the city has granted a no-competitive-bid contract (with a multi-million dollar city grant included) to a former city staffer to develop over ten million dollars worth of new hangar infrastructure at city-owned Dallas Executive Airport (KRBD). The new fees have been sold to council as a means of driving traffic from Love to Redbird. It won't work, but the fix is in.

Traffic driven from KDAL will mostly go to fields other than KRBD - I imagine Addison and Mesquite will be the key beneficiaries.

By the way, Addison is not a low-cost field, but there is no landing fee there.
But at Addison you may sit on the ground for 30 minutes or more. At RBD you might be cleared for takeoff while sitting on the ramp. New hangars and buildings will make a huge difference at RBD, at its much more convenient to downtown than ADS is. Personal prejudices might keep people away, but that's foolish.
 
So less than $15 for most GA aircraft? That by it's self doesn't sound so bad for a big destination airport but I assume there are additional fees for parking and the tax... hmm...
 
Politicians enact a tax to discourage a disfavored behavior, and call it a 'sin tax'. Then they enact a tax on a favored behavior to raise revenue, and are bewildered when that behavior declines or goes away, leaving them without the revenue they projected.

That's how I feel about income taxes. Every time they get raised I believe they want us to work less.
 
Oh look! They have a Signature! Two of them even! Shouldn’t be any problem collecting those new fees! LOL.

By the way, if you’re an idiot and type KLUV into the new ForeFlight search bar instead of KDAL, it gives you a wonderful list of local night clubs and country clubs. Even a golf course.

Man I’m so glad ForeFlight added that feature. Always needed to know where the nearest night clubs and county clubs were when flying my airplane. Golf courses, some limited utility there for engine outs in a single, I suppose.

Seriously ForeFlight? You slowed the UI for that crap?

0f81ec9321b93e2bd5ca400d032dc80a.jpg
 
I could actually see this costing Love money in the end. Probably not a substantial amount but still.

Pilots might end up choosing to use other area airports instead and they would not only miss out on the "fees", they wouldn't get any fuel tax money either.

If someone is flying into Dallas in a typical single or twin and Love Field is the most convenient airport to their purpose, it would be silly to go somewhere else to avoid a fee that's going to be between $20 and $40.

I know it's a big intellectual leap to take, but shouldn't someone that lands at an airport pay for that convenience?
 
If someone is flying into Dallas in a typical single or twin and Love Field is the most convenient airport to their purpose, it would be silly to go somewhere else to avoid a fee that's going to be between $20 and $40.

I know it's a big intellectual leap to take, but shouldn't someone that lands at an airport pay for that convenience?

Yes, if it was a privately owned, not a public, taxpayer supported airport. Perhaps you should make the leap.
 
I know it's a big intellectual leap to take, but shouldn't someone that lands at an airport pay for that convenience?

If you’re going down that path, then everything in aviation should be privatized and there should be no aviation taxes on fuel, and all municipal taxes going to any airport should be refunded.

That’s the crux of the argument. Either the taxes collected pay for the things or they don’t.

The best example is toll roads. The very first thing anyone claiming the need for paying ones taxes will argue is that taxes provide roads for everyone. They’ll ignore the fact that most places are selling off lanes of public roads to private entities at a very good clip these days, even on land that was acquired via eminent domain. They’re just flat out lying.

The money collected never goes down and it’s going somewhere. But not to the roads. The best possible way to convince a populace more taxes are needed, is to let the roads get full of potholes while the money goes to pay for some politician’s pet program, stolen straight out of the General Fund.

Like Spike said, the fix is in Dallas. Some developers with politician friends think they’re going to make money by driving people off of one airport on to another.

Of course no politician would EVER do something like that, they’re all in it for the service they can provide their fellow men, and none of them anywhere ever benefit personally from anything they vote on. Gosh that would be a conflict of interest and surely they’d recuse themselves from any vote that they might have a conflict of interest on.

Yeah, right. They’d happily throw a “convenience fee” on every single job government said it would do these days, if it meant they could funnel away the cash collected and then beg for more when there’s none left to pay for the things they originally said the taxes pay for.
 
It's an utter BS smokescreen; the city has granted a no-competitive-bid contract (with a multi-million dollar city grant included) to a former city staffer to develop over ten million dollars worth of new hangar infrastructure at city-owned Dallas Executive Airport (KRBD). The new fees have been sold to council as a means of driving traffic from Love to Redbird. It won't work, but the fix is in.

Traffic driven from KDAL will mostly go to fields other than KRBD - I imagine Addison and Mesquite will be the key beneficiaries.

By the way, Addison is not a low-cost field, but there is no landing fee there.

I get that Addison is a "no landing fee" airport, but unless that is your home airport and you have a hanger there to park your plane, you will pay a $50 fee at Atlantic (and probably similar amount to the other FBO's there). As far as I could tell, there is no place to park your plane "free" for a quick trip into town and then back out again, unless I am missing something.

At Grand Prairie (KGPM) there is a public ramp and terminal and it really is a "no fee" airport. That is my preferred airport for any business on the south side of DFW.
 
Oh look! They have a Signature! Two of them even! Shouldn’t be any problem collecting those new fees! LOL.

By the way, if you’re an idiot and type KLUV into the new ForeFlight search bar instead of KDAL, it gives you a wonderful list of local night clubs and country clubs. Even a golf course.

Man I’m so glad ForeFlight added that feature. Always needed to know where the nearest night clubs and county clubs were when flying my airplane. Golf courses, some limited utility there for engine outs in a single, I suppose.

Seriously ForeFlight? You slowed the UI for that crap?

I'm puzzled tha KLUV didn't turn up a couple of strip clubs... :D
 
Oh look! They have a Signature! Two of them even! Shouldn’t be any problem collecting those new fees! LOL.

By the way, if you’re an idiot and type KLUV into the new ForeFlight search bar instead of KDAL, it gives you a wonderful list of local night clubs and country clubs. Even a golf course.

Man I’m so glad ForeFlight added that feature. Always needed to know where the nearest night clubs and county clubs were when flying my airplane. Golf courses, some limited utility there for engine outs in a single, I suppose.

Seriously ForeFlight? You slowed the UI for that crap?

0f81ec9321b93e2bd5ca400d032dc80a.jpg

That's a feature for the professional pilots. ;)
 
It's an utter BS smokescreen; the city has granted a no-competitive-bid contract (with a multi-million dollar city grant included) to a former city staffer to develop over ten million dollars worth of new hangar infrastructure at city-owned Dallas Executive Airport (KRBD). The new fees have been sold to council as a means of driving traffic from Love to Redbird. It won't work, but the fix is in.

Traffic driven from KDAL will mostly go to fields other than KRBD - I imagine Addison and Mesquite will be the key beneficiaries.

By the way, Addison is not a low-cost field, but there is no landing fee there.
Is KRBD a no landing fee airport?
 
I know it's a big intellectual leap to take, but shouldn't someone that lands at an airport pay for that convenience?
That's one step away from ATC user fees. Not that I mind.
 
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