Arizona, USA – The dispute over the City of Mesa's landing fee structure at Falcon Field Airport (KFFZ) has escalated significantly, with two on-field flight schools — CAE Aviation Academy and Thrust Flight — filing a federal lawsuit against the city, while the FAA has formally urged Mesa to halt implementation until its investigation is completed and the city has refused to delay the August 1 activation date.

The FAA's April 13 letter, signed by Michael Helvey, Director of the Office of Airport Compliance and Management Analysis, was addressed to Mesa Mayor Mark Freeman, City Manager Scott Butler, and Falcon Field Airport Director Corinne Nystrom, and was made public approximately two months after it was sent.
The FAA expressed "significant concerns" that the fee structure "may be inconsistent with the City's Federal obligations, both grant assurances and Surplus Property Act conveyance obligations," and stated that any attempt to limit operations or specific types of operations through landing fees is not permissible.
The FAA raised explicit safety concerns, warning that "the imposition of dissuasive landing fees has operational impacts (e.g. diversions, go-arounds, pattern saturation), and could, unless assessed, jeopardize or disrupt the Acceptable Level of Safety (ALoS) under which operations are now conducted" — a direct statement that the fee structure could affect air traffic management and efficiency across the wider Phoenix area.
The FAA letter concluded with strong language: "Consequently, I strongly urge the City to halt implementation until the FAA 14 CFR Part 13 investigations are completed." The agency also warned that both Part 13 and Part 16 investigations may impact the FAA's ability to fund airport projects — placing Mesa's federal airport improvement grants at risk.
CAE Aviation Academy and Thrust Flight Properties have filed a federal lawsuit against the city, claiming the March 23 unanimous city council vote was hasty and unwarranted. The schools argue that federal aviation law preempts the city from enforcing the fee, and that a USD 20 per-landing charge is financially crippling for flight training operations involving repeated landings per session. A separate Part 13 complaint filed by the two schools on May 12 estimated the fees could cost their students nearly USD 4 million per year.
Mesa officials have refused to delay enforcement, maintaining the lawsuit lacks legal merit and intending to proceed with the August 1 data collection activation, despite the FAA's investigation and formal request for a halt.
Falcon Field records approximately 300,000 operations per year, making it one of the busiest general aviation and flight training airports in the Phoenix metropolitan area. Under the approved structure, based aircraft under 6,000 pounds receive 10 free landings per month before a USD 20.35 per-landing fee applies; transient aircraft under 6,000 pounds are charged USD 24.35 per landing.
AOPA General Counsel Fernando Campoamor wrote that "the FAA should examine the City's actions in light of the larger national context of what appears to be a growing and disturbing trend at public-use and federally funded airports across the United States to use landing fees to discourage flight operations and address neighborhood noise complaints," adding that the FAA's decision will have national impact and influence how other airport sponsors proceed. AOPA has been engaged on the issue since the fee proposal emerged in late 2025, joining the Arizona Pilots Association and the Aviation Safety Advisory Group of Arizona in two letters to the city council on March 4 and March 20 before the vote. aopa
The case carries significant precedent-setting implications for flight training airports across the United States: if Mesa successfully implements the fee structure despite the FAA's objections, it could establish a template for other airport operators seeking to use landing fees as a mechanism to manage or reduce flight training activity in response to community noise pressure.

Source: FAA

Flight Training Airport Landing Fee Dispute Escalates to Federal Lawsuit as US Aviation Regulator Warns of Safety Risk and Grant Funding Implications

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