New legislation introduced by Congress would federally restrict the use of ADS-B flight tracking data for non-safety-related purposes. The Pilot and Aircraft Privacy Act, introduced in the House and Senate on June 26, would prohibit the use of ADS-B data to assess fees or initiate enforcement actions unrelated to safety, and explicitly reaffirm that its intended use is for air traffic management and situational awareness.
The proposed legislation would bar the use of ADS-B data to collect landing or access fees, and would expand language in the 2024 FAA Reauthorization Act preventing investigations based solely on ADS-B evidence. Also, the bills require that public-use airports make the cost impacts of any new landing fees transparent and stipulate that such fees must be used to fund airside safety improvements. The bills were introduced by Senator Ted Budd (R-North Carolina) and Representative Bob Onder (R-Missouri), both pilots, and co-sponsored by Senators Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska) and Tim Sheehy (R-Montana).
More In Regulations and Government
