Definition
Airports that are not open to the general public and may be used only by the owner or by pilots who have express permission from the owner. Use without permission constitutes trespass, and the airport is not maintained or inspected for public use.
Plain English
An airport you are not allowed to land at unless the owner has personally said yes. It belongs to a person, company, or organisation, and is not part of the public airport system.
Context Anchor
Seen when learning airport types, planning a flight, or checking whether an airport is available for your intended landing.
Derivation
Private comes from the Latin privatus, meaning set apart from public life. That helps here because a private airport is set apart from general public use; it is not automatically available to every pilot.
Why Pilots Care
Landing without permission can result in trespassing violations or safety issues; pilots must identify and avoid private airports during flight planning.
Analogy
Think of it like a private driveway. It may look like a usable path, but that does not mean everyone has permission to drive on it.
Intuition Check
Private does not mean secret, smaller, or less important. Here it means not open to general public use without permission.
Example Sentence 1
The pilot called the ranch owner the day before to get permission to land at the private airport on the property.
Example Sentence 2
Many private airports serve only the owner’s aircraft and do not have fuel or services for visiting pilots.