![]()
Pilots and hangar tenants at Centennial Airport (APA) in Colorado have abandoned their lawsuit against Denver jetCenter over an 82% rent increase after the FAA rejected their grant-assurance complaint, leaving aircraft owners with a costly reminder that lease language can matter as much as the monthly rent itself. The conflict began after Denver jetCenter raised monthly T-hangar rent from $660 to $1,200. Tenants filed an FAA Part 13 complaint arguing the increase was not "fair and reasonable," which would violate the airport's federal grant assurances. The Centennial Airport Pilots Association (CAPA) separately sued in state court for an injunction to block the increase. The FAA rejected the complaint on Aug. 20 and later declined to reconsider its decision on Oct. 7. CAPA leader Chris Stieber stated that Denver jetCenter refused to budge during mediation and that all of its offers included the $1,200 rate. CAPA had to drop the suit because it could no longer afford it. According to AOPA, the legal fees incurred for CAPA were over $60,000. While most of it was paid by Stieber himself, there is a GoFundMe campaign to cover the costs. "The frustration is not only with Denver Jet Center, but also the other pilots who don't understand what's going on here. I have been warning all along that this is going to set a precedent," said Stieber. "To pilots in the rest of the country, if you think this doesn't apply to you, it might not today, but it will tomorrow because now it's open season on hangar rent." The FAA's airport-compliance process allows parties to raise concerns involving grant assurances, but this case demonstrates that filing a complaint does not automatically provide relief from a disputed rate increase. Future disputes over hangar pricing are likely to reference the Centennial outcome because tenants pursued both the FAA complaint process and the lawsuit that CAPA dropped, and the increase still stands. "AOPA is concerned that this decision, along with similar increases proposed elsewhere, will embolden other FBOs and airports across the country to impose outrageous fee hikes," said AOPA General Counsel Fernando Campoamor. "We'll keep working with pilots to fight them, and we'll keep pushing the FAA to enforce the grant assurances that federally funded airports are required to follow." Why it matters The FAA contends tenants must provide "financial information such as the cost of constructing and maintaining hangars, occupancy rates, and other factual information" Campoamor calls that a catch-22, since tenants can't supply data held by the FBO and the airport. Stieber says the leases let rent adjust by the greatest of 3%, the consumer price index (up 3.7% as of September) or "market conditions," and that Denver jetCenter justified the increase under the last of those. He notes that the other two large general aviation airports in the Denver area charge less than $500 a month. Since the hike, he says, more than a third of Denver jetCenter's 45 T-hangars have been vacated.