Support is growing to prohibit the use of Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B) data to collect fees from pilots — in Congress, where the Pilot and Aircraft Privacy Act (PAPA) is gaining cosponsors, in state capitols across the country, and among top aviation safety officials.
“ADS-B data should never be used for accessing a pilot’s personal information or for being used as a cash register. It should be used for its intended purpose — to give pilots situational awareness to help avoid mid-air collisions and for controllers to create airspace efficiencies,” said AOPA Senior Vice President of Government Affairs and Advocacy Jim Coon. “When the nation’s leading transportation safety expert, state legislatures, airports, companies, and hundreds of thousands of pilots all support PAPA, it’s time to address this situation,”
“It’s also important to point out that none of these bills — at the federal or state level — would prevent an airport from charging ‘necessary and appropriate’ landing fees. Anyone claiming that is just spreading misinformation. They simply block the use of this safety-enhancing tool to collect them,” added Coon. “In light of the DCA accident last year, Congress is debating an ADS-B mandate. That safety goal is undermined as long as this safety tool is being used for collecting fees and not enhancing safety.”
Support is also growing at the state level. The Florida House of Representatives passed a similar bill — SB 422 — March 10, 2026, sending it to Gov. Ron DeSantis’s desk. Montana was the first state to ban the collection of ADS-B-based fees from most general aviation pilots in May 2025. Lawmakers in more than a dozen other states, including Arizona, Oklahoma, and Minnesota, have introduced or are considering introducing similar bills.
“We are grateful to state lawmakers across the country who recognize the importance of this issue, and its impact on aviation safety,” Coon said. “Despite the state-level momentum, a patchwork solution isn’t enough to make the skies safer for all of us — only Congress can fully resolve this problem with a uniform law for all states.”
Airports in a number of states, including Illinois, Massachusetts, Florida, New Jersey, California, and Ohio, among others, have also endorsed PAPA.
NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy said the practice “should be prohibited” at a Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation hearing on Feb. 12, 2026.
“ADS-B is a safety tool, and it should be used for safety, not as a revenue generator to charge general aviation pilots ramp fees or landing fees,” said Homendy, adding that ADS-B-derived fees could discourage pilots from installing or using the technology.
“There is no question that ADS-B has been a gamechanger for general aviation pilots,” said AOPA Air Safety Institute Senior Vice President Mike Ginter. “While we’re in one of the safest periods for general aviation in our nation’s history, there is a lot of concern out there that the continued use of ADS-B to charge fees would reverse that trend.”
For more information: AOPA.org
Did you know Florida has been paid around a half a billion dollars for our driver license data!?!? Money is money. Our own governments should be banned from this data peddling.
https://www.clickorlando.com/news/florida/2026/03/16/did-you-know-florida-sells-your-driver-data-lawmakers-failed-to-pass-a-bill-to-restrict-it/
Getting the gov to undue to this ADSb billing and tracking nightmare will take years, and won’t be effective via law. You are the one that self installed a tracking device on your own plane. The only solution here is for you to undo what you did, and “go dark” via the privatization method. You as a citizen are entitled to privacy, you just have to ask for it. You need an anonymous LLC, not in your name, and not in your state, and tell FAA you want your aircraft registration info to “not” be public, and that you want all ADSb tracking to be ceased at the FAA level. VECTOR can’t find you, they can’t track you, and they can’t figure out who owns the plane, or where to send the invoice. Done! I have already done this for 20 planes, it works perfect. Your ADSb “out” still functions and emits a signal for traffic and ATC purposes, but your aircraft shows up as “NA” on all software, and no history of your flight is kept because no N number is associated with it. You can fix this yourself and be done with it, we don’t need to write to senators who are never going to respond or do anything about it. Just go dark. See my free FORUM seminars in person at Sun n Fun this year on exactly how to do it.
I wrote to my two senators (lower case intentional)…one wrote back a blathering, rambling response in which he spoke at length about aircraft security, etc….without ever verbalizing support for the bill.
The other senator hasn’t responded….but it’s only been four months.
This Bill needs to be supported by every Owner and Pilot in the US. However, it needs to go further. Much further. All data from ADS-B should ONLY be available to FAA, NTSB or any other Law Enforcement Agency that needs it for safety or criminal investigation. As a matter of privacy, Flight Aware and other such entities have no right to gather and sell my data. Where I fly is nobodies business but mine. I do not have ADS-B and do not fly where it is required because of the privacy concerns from John Q Public or other potential abuser’s of MY Data.
I too have decided to not equip with ADS-B out.
I don’t fly in controlled airspace and I can easily fly around the few near me in a few minutes.
I also don’t like my flights tracked….my Mode-C gives ATC all they need to see where I am.
Operators need to know who are using their airports. FAA requires operational reports and the information is absolutely used to assist local law enforcement. All these bills accomplish is making airport operator’s jobs more difficult and inefficient which will ultimately mean raising fees. It’s too bad Coon and Homendy don’t spend a fraction of their time advocating for airport funding.
The companies that are selling airports the ADSB based fee collection pocket more of that fee than goes to the airport anyway…
Hire a kid with a good pair of binoculars , pencil and paper. …or a good camera, to get the tail number….
Otherwise , leave us alone.
Well airportadmin, I suppose I should feel guilty for making your job more difficult. No, really. Sorry about that! I guess the hundreds of millions spent by pilots and owners adding ADS-B to their aircraft was justified so you could sit on your duff and eat Bon Bons.
From the FAA data, about 1/2 of the GA aircraft are equipped with ADSB-out, so you would ‘see’ half, or fewer.
There are still a lot of ‘no-electrics’ aircraft flying …so only the mark1 eyeball will see them.!!
Good luck counting airplanes.!!