Who runs the airport?

Question

Are airports private businesses or government owned and operated? If so how does it work? Do airlines pay the government or whoever owns the airport to run their business out of there?

I think this is a stupid question but why is landing at JFK more expensive than a smaller airport if they are government owned?

Also, who owns small grass fields? Like Bayport 23N..

Answer 1

Depends, most large A/P's are owned by the local Government (City, county, etc). There are a lot of Private owned small A/P's (with paved R/W's) and turf R/W's opened to the public.

Answer 2

Airports are usually owned by a company Such as BAA or AENA. Each airport will have an airport manager. Airlines who land there pay landing fees as well as fees for what they use e.g fuel, parking and even security fees. In the end the passenger pays the airline through the ticket and a portion of that ticket price is used along with every other passengers percentage of the overall ticket price to pay airport amenities.

My local small airport is owned by the councils of 2 neighboring towns. It also has an airport manager which would have been vetted and giving their position by the councils who have joint ownership.

Answer 3

Airports have an airport manager who is in charge.  most airports (all of the big ones) are run and funded by the government.  There are private airports and those ones get money because you have to pay to be a member there.  JFK is government owned, grass fields are almost always privately owned.

Answer 4

Large (jet) airports are generally owned by a City. The FAA operates the control facilities, but the airport itself is a revenue source for the City.

The air carriers & other operators pay landing fees to the City. They also lease the buildings in which they operate.

Large airports, like JFK, have a huge overhead expense in mainatining runways, taxiways and the many services needed to operate a jet airport. So the cost of operating your plane in or out of JFK is propotionally large.

Small airports have fewer facilities and therefore operate at reduced cost. That cost is paid by the folks who park their aircraft there, or rent hangar space. All that revenue goes to the entity that owns the airport...usually a nearby town.

Bayport is owned by the Town of Islip.

Answer 5

shareholders i think

Answer 6

Some small airfields are privately owned, and you must request permission to land on them. Usually the private fields are grass. Most airports (runways, lights, tower, etc.) are owned by the government. They are funded by taxes on aircraft fuel, just like our highways. FBOs are usually privately owned, they privide fuel and maintenance services.

Answer 7

Most airports are owned and operated by local governments.  JFK is operated by the Port of New York Authority.  My county airport is owned/operated by the county government, with local and federal funding.  There is a manager and a board of directors, as in most public agencies; these are appointed by the county commission.

There are airports that are privately owned, and as you might expect, these are more and more rare every year.  But there are still hundreds of them.

Answer 8

its private run and it's the managers who run it, same as any other business but i suppose they have strict government guidelines too. The airlines just rent the space.