TRB's Airport Cooperative Research Program (ACRP) LRD 37: Legal Issues Relating to Airports Promoting Competition explores permissible means and methods of encouraging and accommodating competition at U.S. airports. It discusses the history of how competition has been addressed by government and airports and provides the context of the concentration of air carriers and fixed-base operators (FBO...

TRB's Airport Cooperative Research Program (ACRP) Legal Research Digest 36: Legal Issues Related to Implementation and Operation of SMS for Airports provides a review of potential legal issues, an in-depth analysis of identified issues, and the benefits experienced by airports that develop and operate a Safety Management Systems (SMS). Implementation of SMS in the airport and aviation sector ha...

TRB's Airport Cooperative Research Program (ACRP) Legal Research Digest 35: Legal Considerations in the Funding and Development of Intermodal Facilities at Airports provides background on multimodal or intermodal facilities, funding challenges, and a review of the guidance and decisions the Federal Aviation Administration has made pertaining to intermodal facility development at airports. As su...

TRB's Airport Cooperative Research Program (ACRP) Legal Research Digest 34: Airport Public Health Preparedness and Response: Legal Rights, Powers, and Duties addresses the legal issues concerning the measures to detect communicable diseases, regulations to control communicable diseases, methods for decontamination, emergency legal preparedness, privacy, and potential sources of liability. This ...

TRB's Airport Cooperative Research Program (ACRP) Legal Research Digest 33: Overview of Airport Duties and Standards of Care in Airfield Accident Cases provides an overview of the legal duties and standards of care that may create liability when operating a public airfield. It discusses negligence principles and reviews duties and standards of care in an airfield accident context, including the...

TRB's Airport Cooperative Research Program (ACRP) Legal Research Digest 32: Evolving Law on Airport Implications by Unmanned Aerial Systems provides guidance to enhance understanding of the basic legal and operational issues presented by civil unmanned aerial systems (UAS), and evaluates best practices for managing these issues. The digest covers background on UAS uses, applications, regulation...

TRB's Airport Cooperative Research Program (ACRP) Legal Research Digest 31: Preemption of Worker-Retention and Labor-Peace Agreements at Airports serves as an overview of issues related to labor-harmony or labor-peace agreements for airport management personnel and other interested personnel, including airport authority board members or elected officials. These agreements generally require that...

TRB’s Airport Cooperative Research Program (ACRP) Legal Research Digest 30: Contract Risk Management for Airport Agreements provides a general overview of the types of agreements that are typically used by airports of all sizes. It identifies primary risks associated with each type of agreement, and the appendices provide sample language from four organizations illustrating how they manage and ...

TRB's Airport Cooperative Research Program (ACRP) Legal Research Digest 29: Impact of Firearms Laws on Airports analyzes recent court cases on federal and state laws that have been challenged for restricting or prohibiting the carrying of firearms in public and other places. The right to carry guns at airports is subject to the U.S. Constitution, federal and state legislation, and judicial deci...

TRB's Airport Cooperative Research Program (ACRP) Legal Research Digest 28: Operational and Legal Issues with Fuel Farms provides guidance to assist airport sponsors and their legal counselors in understanding the basic legal and operational issues of fuel farms to provide the storage and dispensing of aviation fuels to multiple users at an airport. The report will assist airports with evaluati...