A newly surfaced letter from the Federal Aviation Administration is raising significant questions about whether Los Angeles County can legally close Whiteman Airport, even as the County moves forward with a $1.3 million study exploring the airport’s potential closure and redevelopment.
In a January 21, 2026 letter to Los Angeles County officials, the FAA confirmed that land purchased with federal Airport Improvement Program funds at Whiteman Airport carries obligations that do not expire. According to the FAA, those obligations remain in effect for the useful life of the land and require the property to continue operating as an airport unless the FAA formally releases it.
The letter also states that an airport sponsor that used federal funds to purchase land “must use the land as an airport until released by the FAA.”
The issue traces back to a 1998 action by Los Angeles County accepting FAA Airport Improvement Program funding to acquire land near the runway for safety purposes. Under federal law, when airport land is purchased with those funds, the property carries obligations that do not expire unless the FAA formally releases them.
That raises a pretty basic question: Is it even legally possible to close the airport? And if not, why is the County spending millions of taxpayer dollars studying something that may not be allowed in the first place?
