The Long Beach Airport Advisory Commission will discuss landing fees for aircraft and the impacts of doing so for general aviation during its meeting this week.
The meeting is scheduled for 4 p.m. Thursday, July 16, at the Long Beach Marriott, 4700 Airport Plaza Drive.
In response to ongoing community concerns around general aviation, along with actions taken by other cities on the topic earlier this year, Fifth District Councilmember Megan Kerr requested a presentation go before the commission so that questions around landing fees can be asked and answered in a public forum, according to a newsletter sent out by the District 5 council office.
From the perspective of airport fees, general aviation is a broad category of civilian flying that includes flight schools, recreational flyers, corporate jets, blimps, helicopters and operators of other aircraft, according to the airport staff presentation.
The question the staff presentation will try to answer for commissioners and residents on Thursday is, “Can Long Beach Airport charge general aviation aircraft a landing fee?”
The presentation, which is available online ahead of the meeting, will share what the federal law allows and forbids when setting aeronautical fees; how the airport recovers airfield costs today; the potential implementation process; revenue-neutrality and commensurate share of cost for users; and lessons from other neighboring airports, such as Van Nuys and John Wayne.
A frequent concern for those who live near the Long Beach Airport is noise pollution, but airport staff on Thursday are set to discuss how noise cannot be the reason for a fee. Federal grant assurances prohibit using a fee, or any economic mechanism, as an indirect way to restrict lawful aeronautic activity, according to the presentation.
Airport staff will also discuss how general aviation landing fees would not raise net new money because fees cannot exceed airfield costs. A new landing fee would supplant existing recovery, not add to it, according the presentation. The Long Beach Airport currently recovers airfield costs in two different ways: air carriers’ landing fees, which generated $12.9 million in fiscal year 2026, and general aviation fuel flowage fees, which generated $450,000 in fiscal year 2026.