Rural Airports
Overview
The Bureau of Transportation Statistics, part of the Research and Innovative Technology Administration, has taken over responsibility for compiling a rural airports list annually for the Treasury Department/IRS, which is used by airlines to assist in establishing air fares. For travel to and from airports defined as “rural airports,” the ad valorem ticket tax was reduced and, presently, flight segments involving the last segment into or first segment out of a rural airport are exempt from the segment fee. The rural airports designation originated with The Taxpayer Relief Act of 1997.
Section 1031 of that Act, codified at 26 United States Code section 4261(e), defines a rural airport as any airport having fewer than 100,000 commercial passengers departing by air during the second preceding calendar year and is not located within 75 miles of another airport from which 100,000 commercial passengers departed in the second preceding year or was receiving essential air service subsidies as of the date of the enactment of the act.
For convenience, we are providing a listing at this site, as the function had previously been performed by the Office of Aviation Analysis.
