There are a couple of new wrinkles for the hundreds of private aircraft operators who use Palm Beach International Airport after Monday. When the presidential TFR is in effect (10-nm inner ring, 30-nm outer ring) for President Trump’s trips home, operators will have to register passenger and crew information through its eSecure Flight system before they’ll be allowed to go to Palm Beach or leave from any of the four FBOs there. That’s in addition to registering for prescreening at one of the five designated gateway airports of White Plains, Teterboro, Dulles, Orlando and Fort Lauderdale at least 24 hours before arrival at the prescreening airport. According to NBAA, the TSA says having all the manifest information in advance will make the screening at the gateway airports go more smoothly.
The other change from four years ago is that all flights will have to be on a VFR or IFR flight plan and maintain contact with ATC. Every flight will be assigned a discrete transponder code for flights to Palm Beach. As happened in the previous Trump administration, GA operations like banner towing and flight training won’t be allowed when Trump is at Mar-a-Lago. NBAA spokesman Doug Carr said there’s not much anyone can do about the disruption to local aviation businesses. “We are working to minimize operational impacts as much as possible, but it’s difficult to mitigate and abet the effects from presidential travel in a material fashion,” he said. “This is never a simple process and it’s something our entire industry needs to properly manage.” TFRs will be formally announced through NOTAMs, but NBAA said it will also issue airspace alerts to highlight them.
