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APPENDIX II: PRELIMINARY AIRPORT ASSESSMENT <br /> APPENDIX <br /> <br />Airport Strategic Business Plan, 07/26/2021 56 <br />The FAA considers the right to self-service as prohibiting the establishment of any <br />unreasonable restriction on aircraft owners or operators regarding the servicing of their <br />own aircraft and equipment. When airport users and airport sponsors disagree about <br />whether or not a restriction is reasonable and a formal complaint is filed, the FAA <br />becomes the final arbiter in the matter. Aircraft owners must be permitted to fuel, wash, <br />repair, and otherwise take care of their own aircraft with their own personnel, equipment, <br />and supplies. The airport sponsor, however, is obligated to operate the airport in a safe <br />and efficient manner. The establishment of fair and reasonable rules, applied in a not <br />unjustly discriminatory manner, governing the introduction of equipment, personnel, or <br />practices which would be unsafe, unsightly, detrimental to the public welfare, or which <br />would affect the efficient use of airport facilities by others, is not unreasonable. <br />The Prohibition Against Exclusive Rights Grant Assurance: Assurance 23 (Exclusive <br />Rights) provides that the sponsor of a federally obligated airport: <br />“...will permit no exclusive right for the use of the airport by any persons providing, <br />or intending to provide, aeronautical services to the public...” <br />The fact that an aeronautical activity is provided by only one entity does not necessarily <br />establish an exclusive rights violation. An exclusive rights violation is the denial by an airport <br />sponsor to afford other qualified parties an opportunity to be an on-airport aeronautical <br />service provider. Although federally obligated airports may impose qualifications and <br />minimum standards upon those who engage in aeronautical activities, the FAA has taken the <br />position that the application of any unreasonable requirement or standard that is applied in <br />an unjustly discriminatory manner may constitute a constructive grant of an exclusive right. <br />When airport users and airport sponsors disagree about whether or not a requirement is <br />reasonable and a formal complaint is filed, the FAA becomes the final arbiter in the matter. <br />Assurance 23 provides for two limited exceptions. An airport sponsor may choose to offer <br />some or all aeronautical services itself and exclude other entities from competing with <br />these services. This is referred to as the airport sponsor’s proprietary exclusive right. If <br />an airport sponsor chooses to exercise its proprietary exclusive right to offer aeronautical <br />services, it must do so with its own resources and its own employees; airport sponsors <br />may not contract out their proprietary exclusive right. The second exception applies when <br />the airport sponsor faces unreasonably costly, burdensome, or impractical challenges in <br />accommodating more than one FBO (or SASO) to provide a service and adding a second <br />FBO would result in a reduction in space leased to and actively used by the existing FBO. <br />Airport Rates and Charges: Assurance 24 (Fee and Rental Structure) provides that the <br />sponsor of a federally obligated airport: <br />“…maintain a fee and rental structure for the facilities and services at the airport <br />which will make the airport as self-sustaining as possible under the circumstances <br />existing at that particular airport, taking into account such factors as the volume of <br />traffic and economy of collection.”