FAA Clarifies Charting Notice on Private Airports

The FAA quietly released a “Charting Notice” in September which declared “Effective November 3, 2022, Visual Flight Rules (VFR) aeronautical charts will no longer make reference to emergency value in private airport charting.” It went on to say that “Only private airports with landmark value will be retained and charted beyond February 23, 2023.” This raised concerns in the EAA community that the change would have safety implications for pilots utilizing VFR charts during flight planning and in emergencies.

The approximately 14,400 private airfields in the United States account for nearly 75% of the nation’s total airports, and are indispensable parts of our general aviation infrastructure.

Responding to community concern, the FAA released a follow-on notice Tuesday, clarifying that the only anticipated change was the removal of the term “emergency” from the chart legend in reference to private airports. The FAA determines whether to chart private airports based on “landmark value,” and these criteria are staying the same as those used before the September notice. The updated notice concludes that “aeronautical charts users should not see a significant change to private airports depicted on VFR charts.”

EAA continues to work with industry partners to clarify this issue and will take the appropriate steps to make sure important airport information is not omitted on charts. We will update the EAA community with more information as it becomes available.