What is a "Private" Airport?

T

tomokc

Well-Known Member
I read that someone claimed to own "the third largest private airport in the United States," which makes me wonder about the definition of "private." I didn't see a definition or list at FAA.gov.

Can anyone help? Thanks.
 
It's an airport that is owned by an individual. There's an airport near me that is privately owned, and public use. Some are privately owned, and for private use.

Public use airports have more FAA requirements for markings, standards, etc. The FAA is more lenient for private use.
 
I don't believe they get any govt funding, also different rules vs public use airports...such as security, lighting, blah blah blah....
 
As stated, an airport owned by individual or company; these are not funded or supported by Federal funds. The vast majority are not open for public use but some are.
One that comes to mind is Branson, MO; it's privately owed but allows commercial flights to rent its' use.

Any of these are usable in an emergency!!
 
Private owned, public use.
  • Catalina
  • Cable
  • Santa Paula
Private owned restricted use.
  • HOA
  • Corporate
  • Farmers
What they have in common is no federal funding.
 
Here's a photo of my private airport.

John_Travolta_02.jpg
 
State funding plays a huge part, doesn't it? We were recently asked to provide a company profile to airport management in order for them to better asses which state grants they qualify for....
 
For starters how does John Travolta have enough money to support a 707. I read that he said he doesn't fly it very often, but still those costs for upkeep and calendar checks must be enormous. I know he has made some good movies in the past, but still.

An example of a private airport in the US is Lufthansa's airport out south of the Sierra Estrella Mountains south of Phoenix. Private owned, private use. I'm not even sure I've seen a road to it, but they use it for instrument practice for their ab initio flight school.
 
There's one in El Paso Approach airspace — Cielo Dorado Estates (TA50) near Santa Teresa, New Mexico. It's a fly-in community in which the streets double as taxiways and most of the houses have hangars instead of garages.

02869.jpg
 
jwp_145 said:
An example of a private airport in the US is Lufthansa's airport out south of the Sierra Estrella Mountains south of Phoenix. Private owned, private use. I'm not even sure I've seen a road to it, but they use it for instrument practice for their ab initio flight school.
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There's a bunch of them in AZ. From Carefree to La Cholla to the Red Bull airfield to a host of others all around the state.
 
Krieger said:
Here's a photo of my private airport.

John_Travolta_02.jpg
Click to expand...

Sweet Terminal!

Does it have Starbucks and a Shoe Shine guy?

back to topic... When I lived in OK I had a house at 2OK2, a private airport. Same thing, the street was the taxiway for those houses not backing up to runway.

Big fight from the Piper crowd when people started building tall, brick mailboxes on the narrow street :)
 
I'm involved in airport management and what this comes down to is a difference in funding. There are really 3 main categories of civilian airports:

-Privately owned, Private use (privately funded)
-Privately owned, Public use (privately funded)
-Publicly owned, Public use (publicly funded)

There are lots of differences in regards to requirements for things like markings and permissions, etc depending on the type. Some states are now allowing privately owned, public use airports to get limited funding in order to remain open, provided they comply with grant restrictions.
 
So "I own the third largest private airport in the US" is a meaningless statement, unverifiable and indisputable, and is merely good fodder for a gullible person to reprint or repeat?
 
tomokc said:
So "I own the third largest private airport in the US" is a meaningless statement, unverifiable and indisputable, and is merely good fodder for a gullible person to reprint or repeat?
Click to expand...

Largest private airport in terms of area/land or largest private airport in terms of number of yearly flight ops?
 
Cóndor said:
Largest private airport in terms of area/land or largest private airport in terms of number of yearly flight ops?
Click to expand...
This person tends to make broad claims that lead an uninformed listener think one thing, but can easily be walked back if necessary.
 
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