It’s no secret that whenever the president is in town, security for him ties up the roads in Palm Beach, but it has also jammed up the airways.

Since being sworn in Jan. 20, President Donald Trump has visited Palm Beach five times, each time closing down airspace that small airports need to use to survive. While he wasn’t in town this past weekend, the president is expected at Mar-a-Lago for a possible summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping on April 6 and 7.

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For Palm Beachers who fly or charter private planes, Trump’s arrivals require extra planning if their trips coincide with his.

“There’s 10 airports that are affected by it,” said resident Gary Lickle, who flies recreationally a couple of times a week.

He has four airplanes that he stores at the North County Airport, which is affected by the flight restrictions. Wherever the president goes, it creates a no-fly zone within a 10-mile radius. Planes and pilots flying within a 30-mile radius are subject to background checks and preflight screening.

“The real impact is on the local businesses,” Lickle said.

The Lantana Airport is within that 10-mile radius and is shut down by the Secret Service when Trump visits Palm Beach. Its executive director said the airport has been losing revenue and some operations have moved to other airports, as reported by the Palm Beach Post.

“Five or six weekends that you cannot do your flight school? Or demonstrate a new aircraft? That’s a lot,” Lickle said. “Even the mechanics. If they need to test-fly a plane, they can’t do it … All the model and radio control RC clubs are shut down.”



Lickle said he felt this inconvenience first-hand earlier this month.

“We were headed to the Bahamas (from North County Airport) … and we couldn’t fly into PBIA to clear (customs),” said Lickle, who postponed the trip. “The whole idea of flying and private aircraft is efficiency.”

Resident Cil Draine uses her plane for the same reason as Trump, just not as often.

“I live down here in the wintertime from Ohio,” Draine said. Most of the time, she keeps her 10-passenger Learjet 47 in Ohio when she’s not using it, and hasn’t felt the same impact as Lickle.

“Everything works out if you give them enough notice,” Draine said, who doesn’t use her plane weekly and flies into Palm Beach International Airport. “We don’t have any problems at all.”

The same can be said for clients who come through Palm Beach Travel, a travel agency based in Manalapan that caters to luxury travelers.

“Many of our clients arrive in Palm Beach via PBIA either commercially or privately so they have not been affected,” owner Annie Davis said via email. “The only restrictions that have affected our clients have been the traffic restrictions. We monitor closely when the President is in town and adjust our clients experiences accordingly.”