TRB’s Airport Cooperative Research Program (ACRP) Legal Research Digest 19: Legal Issues Related to Developing Safety Management Systems and Safety Risk Management at U.S. Airports explores the basics of a safety management systems (SMS); discusses the concept of a “just culture;” highlights efforts to implement SMS at airports and in other industries such as maritime, patient safety, and oil a...

TRB’s Airport Cooperative Research Program (ACRP) Legal Research Digest 18: Buy America Requirements for Federally Funded Airports discusses the legislative history pertaining to Buy America, the applicable federal regulations, and how it has been applied at airports. The report includes suggested guidance that airport counsel may find useful as it pertains to airport construction and equipment...

TRB’s Airport Cooperative Research Program (ACRP) Legal Research Digest 17: State and Federal Regulations that May Affect Initiatives to Reduce Airports’ GHG Emissions addresses issues that are relevant to implementing greenhouse gas (GHG) mitigation measures at airports. The report also provides a compilation of carbon reduction initiatives at airports that distinguish between green building r...

TRB’s Airport Cooperative Research Program (ACRP) Legal Research Digest 16: Procurement of Airport Development and Planning Contracts provides guidance on how to determine which requirements apply to any given procurement process. The report also includes an overview of the consequences for noncompliance with procurement laws or regulations in order to help airports better understand the inhere...

TRB’s Airport Cooperative Research Program (ACRP) Legal Research Digest 15: Compilation of State Airport Authorizing Legislation presents information pertaining to each state’s airport-specific legislation, including laws establishing, developing, operating, expanding, and funding airports. The compilation focuses on legislation expressly applicable to public airports rather than legislation ap...

TRB’s Airport Cooperative Research Program (ACRP) Legal Research Digest 14: Achieving Airport-Compatible Land Uses and Minimizing Hazardous Obstructions in Navigable Airspace discusses airport-compatible land-use requirements, the legal issues related to achieving airport compatible land use, and legal issues particular to eliminating hazardous obstructions to airspace. The report also inc...

TRB’s Airport Cooperative Research Program (ACRP) Legal Research Results Digest 13: An Index and Digest of Decisions: Compilation of Airport Law Resources is a list of judicial decisions with summaries of relevant holdings and links to source documents. ACRP LRD Digest 13 complements the information contained in ACRP Legal Research Digest 4 : Compilation of DOT and FAA Airport Legal Determinati...

TRB’s Airport Cooperative Research Program (ACRP) Legal Research Digest 12: Fair Disclosure and Airport Impact Statements in Real Estate Transfers examines the effect of a state or locality having no real property disclosure laws, explores existing general state real property disclosure laws, and discusses existing state real property disclosure laws specifically requiring the disclosure of air...

TRB’s Airport Cooperative Research Program (ACRP) Legal Research Digest 11: Survey of Minimum Standards: Commercial Aeronautical Activities at Airports explores source material for adopting and enforcing minimum standards that airport owners and operators commonly impose on businesses that perform commercial aeronautical activities that occur at airports. Examples of aeronautical activities inc...

TRB’s Airport Cooperative Research Program (ACRP) Legal Research Digest 10: Analysis of Federal Laws, Regulations, and Case Law Regarding Airport Proprietary Rights explores airport proprietary rights, including regulation of noise, other environmental matters, safety restrictions, leasing practices, congestion management, and other airport access limitations. The report examines relevant statu...

TRB’s Airport Cooperative Research Program (ACRP) Legal Research Digest 9: Case Studies on Community Challenges to Airport Development explores judicial decisions related to challenges to airport expansion and development. The report examines the basis, defense strategies, and outcomes of cases, as well as the results of a survey of airports regarding litigation strategies.

TRB’s Airport Cooperative Research Program (ACRP) Legal Research Digest 8: The Right to Self-Fuel explores the meaning of and constraints involved with self-fueling at airports.

TRB's Airport Cooperative Research Program (ACRP) Legal Research Digest 7: Airport Governance and Ownership addresses the issue of essential powers to operate an airport; defines what airport governance includes; describes the advantages and disadvantages of the various governance structures; identifies and analyzes a number of projects where airports were transferred from one form of governanc...

TRB’s Airport Cooperative Research Program (ACRP) Legal Research Digest 6: The Impact of Airline Bankruptcies on Airports examines legal issues presented by the filing of airline bankruptcies that are relevant to airports, and explores how airport lawyers and courts have responded to those issues. The report highlights the basics of bankruptcy theory and law relevant to airport operating agreem...

TRB’s Airport Cooperative Research Program (ACRP) Legal Research Digest 5: Responsibility for Implementation and Enforcement of Airport Land-Use Zoning Restrictions explores federal, state, regional, and local laws and regulations pertaining to aviation land use and zoning, and identifies the primary responsibilities of each relevant legal body and how this responsibility is communicated and e...

TRB’s Airport Cooperative Research Program (ACRP) Legal Research Digest 4 is a compilation of U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) and U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) airport legal determinations and opinion letters through December 31, 2007.  The compilation, available in a CD format, includes indexes designed to facilitate the search for specific questions and issues. In M...

TRB’s Airport Cooperative Research Program (ACRP) Legal Research Digest 3: Survey of Laws and Regulations of Airport Commercial Ground Transportation explores guidance, including regulations, statutes, policies, and decisions pertaining to commercial ground transportation at U.S. airports.  The report defines ground transportation as including public transit, door-to-door shuttle van serv...

TRB’s Airport Cooperative Research Program (ACRP) Legal Research Digest 2: Theory and Law of Airport Revenue Diversion explores the issue of airport revenue diversion, what prompted Congress to address it, how it has manifested itself, and how the prohibition against revenue diversion has been enforced.  

TRB’s Airport Cooperative Research Program (ACRP) Legal Research Digest 1: Compilation of Airport Law Resources identifies federal resources for conducting research on airport law topics and monitoring development within the area of airport law.  The report also includes an index of airport law topics and federal sources of airport law information.