George W. Poncy Jr. argues House Bill 919 was an overstep by the state government and will create unnecessary safety risks
Credit: Richard Sellers/Sportsphoto/Allstar via Getty; Lannis Waters/The Palm Beach Post/ZUMA Press Wire/Shutterstock
NEED TO KNOW
- A Florida pilot filed a lawsuit challenging the renaming of Palm Beach International Airport after Donald Trump
- The pilot, George W. Poncy Jr., argues the name change creates safety risks and oversteps local control of airport operations
- The law, which renames the facility to “Donald J. Trump International Airport,” goes into effect on July 1, pending FAA approval
A Florida pilot is challenging the state's recent move to rename Palm Beach International Airport after President Donald Trump.
George W. Poncy Jr., a Federal Aviation Administration (FAA)-licensed pilot based in Palm Beach County, filed a civil complaint against the state of Florida, its Department of Transportation and Governor Ron DeSantis on April 16. The lawsuit, obtained by PEOPLE, asks the Palm Beach County Circuit Court to declare the recently signed House Bill 919 unlawful and block its enforcement before it goes into effect on July 1.
HB 919, which was approved by DeSantis on March 30, gives the power of naming major commercial service airports to the state of Florida. Filed in December 2025 and introduced in January, the bill renames Palm Beach International Airport to the “Donald J. Trump International Airport,” pending approval from the FAA.
Credit: Joe Raedle/Getty
According to The Palm Beach Post, airport administrators plan to spend $5.5 million on rebranding exterior and interior signage, uniforms, equipment, marketing and promotional materials. However, the law itself does not include any state funding.
But according to Poncy's complaint, the move was an overstep by the state government and will create unnecessary safety risks.
Poncy, who is representing himself, argues Palm Beach International Airport is owned and managed by Palm Beach County, thus decisions related to its “designation and identity” have historically been handled at the local level.
“Florida statutes governing public facilities reflect a consistent legislative framework in which local entities manage and control airport operations,” Poncy writes in the complaint. “HB 919 departs from the framework by mandating a specific naming outcome without standards, findings or procedural safeguards.”
He adds: “This departure reflects an unstructured and unreasoned exercise of legislative power.”
Credit: Joe Cavaretta/South Florida Sun Sentinel/Tribune News Service via Getty
Poncy says the renaming efforts would also cause “asynchronous updates” across systems like air traffic control communications and navigation databases.
“These inconsistencies will introduce ambiguity in communications between pilots and air traffic control,” he says. “In aviation, even minor inconsistencies in airport identification can create safety risks during routing, sequencing and emergency operations.”
Poncy says he will incur “unrecoverable costs” associated with updating aviation software, navigational databases and flight planning systems affected by the name change.
On Friday, the court denied Poncy's emergency motion for a temporary injunction prohibiting the implementation of HB 919.
PEOPLE has reached out to Poncy, the Florida Attorney General's Office, the Florida Department of Transportation and the office of Ron DeSantis for comment.
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According to a March 31 statement issued by the Palm Beach International Airport, the new legislation will only rename the airport and not its airport code, PBI. However, Florida Rep. Brian Mast introduced legislation on March 24 to officially rename the airport with the “DJT” identifier.
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