Legal Issues Concerning the Safety and Security of General Aviation Airports (2025)
Chapter: ACRP LRD 48: Legal Issues Concerning the Safety and Security of General Aviation Airports
AIRPORT COOPERATIVE RESEARCH PROGRAM
Sponsored by the Federal Aviation Administration
Legal Issues Concerning the Safety and Security of General Aviation Airports
This digest was prepared under ACRP Project 11-01, “Legal Aspects of Airport Programs,” for which the Transportation Research Board (TRB) is the agency coordinating the research. Under Topic 15-02, this digest was prepared by C. Edward Young, Kali Hague, Kent Jackson, Jetlaw, LLC, Washington, DC. The opinions and conclusions expressed or implied in this digest are those of the researchers who performed the research and are not necessarily those of the Transportation Research Board; the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine; or the program sponsors. The senior program officer is Jordan Christensen.
Background
There are over 4,000 airports in the country and most of these airports are owned by governments. A 2003 survey conducted by Airports Council International–North America concluded that city ownership accounts for 38 percent, followed by regional airports at 25 percent, single county at 17 percent, and multi-jurisdictional at 9 percent. Primary legal services to these airports are, in most cases, provided by municipal, county, and state attorneys.
Research reports and summaries produced by the Airport Continuing Legal Studies Project and published as ACRP Legal Research Digests are developed to assist these attorneys seeking to deal with the myriad of legal problems encountered during airport development and operations. Such substantive areas as eminent domain, environmental concerns, leasing, contracting, security, insurance, civil rights, and tort liability present cutting-edge legal issues where research is useful and indeed needed. Airport legal research, when conducted through the TRB’s legal studies process, either collects primary data that usually are not available elsewhere or performs analysis of existing literature.
Foreword
This legal research digest examines state and local laws related to safety and security at general aviation airports. This digest expands on ACRP Synthesis 3: General Aviation Safety and Security Practices (2007), which identified states with licensing requirements for public-use airports, including information regarding the nature and extent of state and local regulation of general aviation (GA) airports. There is a range of standards and programs for enforcing safety and security at GA airports. Comparing local laws with the federal requirements provides further distinction between the state regulatory requirements. Additionally, the applicability of federal, state, and local regulations depends on the area being defined as an airport.
The objective of this project was to provide a comprehensive compilation of legal source information for stakeholders in safety and security of federally obligated GA airports in the National Plan of Integrated Airport Systems. Research included identifying state and local laws on safety and security at public-use GA airports. Appendix A provides a resource of state statutory, administrative code information for each state.
