Statement from Thrust Flight on the City of Mesa’s Revised Falcon Field Fee Proposal

Texas, USA – Mesa’s decision to bring in professional input on the revised fees for Falcon Field is a step in the right direction. Thrust Flight looks forward to reviewing the economic analysis behind the new proposal and hopes the inaccuracies and misallocations in the City’s earlier work have been corrected, since any decision on airport fees should rest on accurate data.

Even with the changes, the proposal would still charge fees to the flight schools and other businesses that are based at Falcon Field and operate there every day. No other large airport in the country that focuses on general aviation and pilot training charges its based businesses this way.

Learning to fly takes extensive training, especially when it comes to landings. Student pilots repeatedly practice touch-and-go’s, where the plane lands and takes off again right away without coming to a stop, and a single lesson can include many of them. A fee charged every time a plane lands adds up quickly for a student who needs that practice. Flight schools would have to either raise what they charge students or cut back on training, and either choice makes it harder for the hundreds of professional pilots who graduate from Falcon Field’s flight schools each year to get the training they need.

Higher costs would also push flight schools and other airport businesses to move some or all of their operations to other airports in the area. When that happens, the jobs they provide and the money they spend in Mesa leave with them. Thrust Flight wants to see the City account for that loss in its financial modeling, because fees that drive businesses away will bring in far less money than the City expects.

Moving that training activity elsewhere also raises a safety concern. The airspace around Phoenix is already crowded with air traffic, and sending more student pilots into it adds risk. Thrust Flight would like to know whether the City has ensured that a safety risk assessment has been completed, so that flight operations don’t become riskier for pilots or for the residents who live beneath their flight paths.

The City has said it will meet with airport users to get more feedback on the revised fees, and Thrust Flight plans to take part. Those conversations should lead to real changes based on what the people and businesses who rely on Falcon Field have to say. Residents who live near the airport have concerns of their own that deserve attention, and the best way to address them is through careful analysis and open discussion with everyone involved rather than costly policy fights.

Source: Thrust Flight