NATA has objected to the use of FAA funds disbursed under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to the Chattanooga Metropolitan Airport Authority (CMAA) to build a ramp for a new airport-owned FBO at Chattanooga Metropolitan Airport/Lovell Field. The new facility, to be managed by Tennessee-based Wilson Air Center, is scheduled for completion this summer and would compete with Tac Air, which has been the lone ground services provider at the airport.

In a letter to FAA Administrator Randy Babbitt, NATA president Jim Coyne noted that revenue-generating commercial facility infrastructure was ineligible for such funding based on longstanding FAA policy, and warned that “approval of this grant and accompanying distribution of funds appear to be a dangerous shift in policy.