Pilot and Aircraft Privacy Act
The Pilot and Aircraft Privacy Act would add new restrictions in federal aviation law on how automatic dependent surveillance-broadcast (ADS-B) data may be used. The bill prohibits any person, including a government agency, from using ADS-B data to identify an aircraft for the purpose of assessing a fee or otherwise imposing a charge on the owner or operator. It also limits air traffic controllers’ use of ADS-B data to tracking aircraft and improving safety and efficiency, unless the Secretary of Transportation approves another use through notice-and-comment procedures.
The bill would further bar the Federal Aviation Administration and other federal, state, local, territorial, or tribal officials from using ADS-B data in investigations under the cited FAA enforcement provision. In addition, it creates a new requirement for public-use airports that want to impose landing or takeoff fees on general aviation aircraft: before doing so, they must publicly disclose efforts to reduce non-airside expenses, seek other revenue sources, estimate the cost and timeline of airside safety projects funded by the fees, and assess the impact on general aviation users and related local pilots, students, charities, and businesses. Revenue from such fees could be used only for airside safety projects, and the FAA could issue regulations or reporting requirements to implement the section.
If enacted, the bill would amend Title 49 of the U.S. Code by adding a new section on ADS-B data use and a new section governing fees on general aviation aircraft, while also modifying an existing FAA enforcement provision to broaden the ban on ADS-B-based investigative use. It would directly affect the FAA, air traffic controllers, airport operators, and any government entity seeking to use ADS-B data for fee assessment, enforcement, or investigations. Public-use airports would face new transparency and use restrictions before charging general aviation landing or takeoff fees, and general aviation operators would gain statutory protections against certain data-driven charges and fee practices.
Based on the bill text and the absence of recorded committee debate or votes, the measure appears to be framed as a privacy and fairness bill for pilots and general aviation users. Its sponsors’ framing suggests support for limiting government and airport use of flight-tracking data and for ensuring that fees on general aviation are justified and tied to safety-related spending. No formal sentiment from hearings or votes is available in the provided record, but the structure of the bill indicates a pro-general-aviation, pro-privacy orientation.
The likely points of contention are the bill’s restrictions on how airports and governments may use ADS-B data and its limits on airport fee authority. Airport operators and some public agencies may object that the bill reduces flexibility to recover costs, manage operations, or use flight data for enforcement and planning. General aviation advocates, by contrast, are likely to support the bill’s privacy protections, limits on fee use, and disclosure requirements. The requirement that fee revenue be restricted to airside safety projects and the prohibition on using ADS-B data to identify aircraft for charges are the most significant policy constraints in the measure.