Someone had recently asked me, “How do airports make money?” Airports are burdened with the cost of governmental mandates, such as security upgrades, environmental, and compliance with numerous other ordinances. The majority of airports are publicly owned and are financed through airport bonds and municipal grants. To raise money, airports lease hangars, buildings, fuel farm facilities, gates, terminal space, and sometimes entire terminals to airlines, FBOs (Fixed Based Operators), freight companies, restaurants/concessions, and other corporate entities which amount to the single largest source of income.

Airports takes a percentage of the profit from aircraft refueling, referred to as a flowage fee (normally .07 to .15 cents per gallon of fuel), aircraft parking fees, parking garage fees, passenger facility charges (PFCs, normally $4.50 per passenger enplanement), and so on. These fees go toward terminal upgrades and support facilities that are not covered through federal funding. After reading this, you may be thinking airports are raking in money fist over fist, but the expense to operate an airport is overwhelming. Airport maintenance, including runway and terminal upkeep can be expensive. The electric bill alone at my airport is $6 million dollars per year and it is a relatively small airport with one terminal and two runways. Larger airports like Atlanta, Georgia have an electric bill of approximately $30 million, and cost between $150-$200 million in total operating costs each year.