Border Airport Fairness Act Waives Federal User Fees for Airports Near U.S. Land Borders

The Border Airport Fairness Act of 2025 is looking to streamline international travel and trade at specific airports located near the U.S. borders. This bill essentially gives the President the power to formally designate certain airports as official ports of entry, which sounds like a bureaucratic detail, but it comes with a major financial perk.

The Airport Fast Track: Who Qualifies?

This legislation isn’t for just any airport. To qualify for this new designation, an airport must meet three specific criteria. First, it needs to be a “primary airport” (meaning it handles a certain volume of traffic). Second, it must be located within 30 miles of either the northern (Canada) or southern (Mexico) international land border. Think of those airports that are practically spitting distance from the border crossing.

The third, and most critical, requirement is that the airport must be formally linked—through a contract or local ordinance—to an existing land border crossing or seaport that is also within that 30-mile radius. This formal link is the key. The airport also has to satisfy the numerical standards that U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) currently uses when deciding to establish a port of entry. Essentially, the airport needs to prove it’s already doing the work of a port of entry, just without the official title.

The Real-World Impact: Lowering the Cost of Entry

So, why does this designation matter to you, the traveler, or the small business owner who relies on cross-border trade? It’s all about the money. Once an airport is officially designated as a port of entry under this Act, it immediately stops having to charge a specific federal user fee mandated by the Trade and Tariff Act of 1984 (Section 236).

This fee waiver means less cost for the airport to operate its international services, and potentially, lower costs for the airlines and passengers using that airport. For example, if you’re a freight forwarder using a small airport near the Canadian border, this change could mean slightly reduced operational costs for international flights, making that airport a more attractive, less expensive option than a larger hub further away.

Where Does the Money Go?

While this sounds like a clear win for border airports and their users, it does raise a question about federal funding. That user fee that is being waived currently goes to the U.S. Treasury or a related government fund. Waiving it means that revenue stream disappears for the designated airports. This isn’t a huge policy shift, but it’s worth noting that when the federal government waives a fee, that cost doesn't vanish—it’s either absorbed by the government or shifted elsewhere. If more airports get this designation, the federal government will need to cover the costs of customs and border protection at those locations through other means, potentially affecting the funding structure for all international ports of entry.