NBAA has welcomed news that a new landing-fee structure at Santa Monica Municipal Airport, Calif., was approved by city officials. Scheduled to become effective August 1, it replaces a previous program that had been rejected by the FAA on the grounds it unjustly discriminated against certain aircraft types. Under the new landing-fee program, transient aircraft will be charged landing fees at a uniform rate of $2.07 per thousand pounds of “maximum certified landing weight,” regardless of size. The fees will not apply to aircraft based at the airport. An earlier fee structure, to which NBAA formally objected, had been determined by the FAA to be discriminatory and unlawful and would have resulted in a loss of federal funds for airport improvements. “We are pleased that the Santa Monica city officials accepted the FAA’s ruling and have produced a landing-fee policy that honors the law and serves in the best interests of the airport and community,” said NBAA president and CEO Ed Bolen.