The proposal to implement landing fees at Falcon Field Airport (KFFZ) in Mesa, Arizona, is generating pushback from airport tenants and users, but there’s support from residential neighborhoods surrounding it that perceive the charges as a means to reduce noise levels by reducing traffic.
Falcon Field Airport has two parallel runways: 4L/22R, measuring 3,799 feet by 75 feet, and 4R/22L, measuring 5,100 by 100. The airport sits in Class D airspace beneath the Phoenix Class B.
The airport was built in 1941 as an Army Air Corps training base, then deeded in 1948 to the city of Mesa, which still owns and operates it. As has happened with many other World War II-era airports across the country, over the decades the once open land surrounding them has been developed into residential neighborhoods with residents who complain about aircraft noise…