FixedFixed-Base Operation: FBO

An FBO's role is service. They do not make money by selling tickets for flights, but by selling fuel to plane owners and offering them a place to park their plane or plan the rest of their flight.

Intro: The Aviation Service Industry

All civil aircraft are directly affected by the safety regulations of the FAA (In the US) Aviation Service requires maintenance, repairs and installation of parts Aircraft must go through a cyclical reinspection on at least on annual basis Major airliners usually have their own maintenance facilities for periodic and progressive maintenance

Intro: The Aviation Service Industry

But a few major general aviation business aircraft operators rely on the services of specialized support business operations

FixedFixed-Base Operations
Def: a service center at an airport that may be a private enterprise or may be a department of the municipality that the airport serves At a minimum, most FBOs offer aircraft fuel, oil, and parking, along with access to washrooms and telephones. Some FBOs offer additional aircraft services such as hangar (indoor) storage, maintenance, aircraft charter or rental, flight training, deicing, and ground services such as towing and baggage handling.

FixedFixed-Base Operations
FBOs may also offer services not directly related to the aircraft, such as rental cars, lounges, and hotel reservations FBOs operations commonly contracted at/ close to an airport , and often while sharing the airport with air carrier and military operations

FixedFixed-Base Operations
Major services provided by FBOs are
Ground Handling
Cabin Service Catering Ramp Service Passenger Service

Field Operations Service

Ground Handling
Many airlines subcontract ground handling to an airport or a handling agent, or even to another airline. Ground handling addresses the many service requirements of a passenger aircraft between the time it arrives at a terminal gate and the time it departs on its next flight. Speed, efficiency, and accuracy are important in ground handling services in order to minimize the turnaround time (the time during which the aircraft must remain parked at the gate).

Ground Handling
Airlines with less-frequent service or fewer lessresources at a particular location sometimes subcontract ground handling or on-call onaircraft maintenance to another airline, as it is a short-term cheaper alternative to setting up shortits own ground handling or maintenance capabilities.

Ground Handling
Most ground services are not directly related to the actual flying of the aircraft, and instead involve other tasks. The major categories of ground handling services are described below.

Cabin Services
These services ensure passenger comfort. They include such tasks as cleaning the passenger cabin and replenishment of ononboard consumables or washable items such as soap, pillows, tissues, blankets, etc.

Catering
Catering includes the unloading of unused food and drink from the aircraft, and the loading of fresh food and drink for passengers and crew. Airline meals are typically delivered in trolleys. The empty or trash-filled trolley(s) from the previous trashflight is replaced by a fresh one. Meals are prepared mostly on the ground in order to minimize the amount of preparation (apart from chilling or reheating) required in the air.

Ramp Service
This includes services on the ramp or apron, such as:
Guiding the aircraft into and out of the parking position (by way of Aircraft marshalling Water cartage (to refill fresh water tanks) Refueling, which may be done with a refueling tanker truck or refueling pumper Passenger stairs (used instead of an aerobridge or airstairs, some budget airlines use both to improve turnaround speed) etc.

Ramp Service
This includes services on the ramp or apron, such as:
Lavatory drainage, Air conditioning (more common for smaller aircraft) Airstart units (for starting engines) Luggage handling, usually by means of beltloaders and baggage carts Air cargo handling, usually by means of cargo dollies, and cargo loaders Catering trucks, Wheelchair lifts, if required Deicing Ground power Deicing,

Passenger Service
This includes services inside the airport terminal such as: Providing check-in counter services for the checkpassengers departing on the customer airlines. Providing Gate arrival and departure services. The agents are required to meet a flight on arrival as well as provide departure services including boarding passengers, closing the flight, etc. Staffing the Transfer Counters, Customer Service Counters, Airline Lounges, etc.

Field Operation Service

This service dispatches the aircraft, maintains communication with the rest of the airline operation at the airport and with Air Traffic Control.

Other Operations of FBO

Can be summarized as listed below
Administration of the business Line Services
Fueling Sale of lubricants

Aircraft storage
Bulk hangarage T-hangarage

Other Operations of FBO

Aircraft maintenance (related to MRO)
Major repairs and constructions Minor repairs Annual inspections and relicensing

Engine maintenance
Major Minor Remanufacture

Other Operations of FBO

Avionics
Sales Services
Maintenance Recertification

Aircraft Sales and rentals

New aircraft Used aircraft

Other Operations of FBO

Flight instruction
Primary Advanced
Instrument Multi-engine Multi-

Recurrent

Parts sales and service

Tires, brakes and bearings Batteries

Other Operations of FBO

Specialized commercial functions
Aerial advertising

Not all FBOs perform all the functions listed before

Some may specialize in only one or two categories

Other Operations of FBO

But normally performs the 6 major functions either as
Part of business By leasing space out to specialists who perform the functions on the owned/ leased premises

An FBOs is like a shopping mall manager who is charged with making a profit on each of the many, widely diverse individual business operations within the orbit of the overall operation

Size and Scope of FBOs

Fall into four categories
Major Medium-size MediumSmall Special Size

MAJOR
Located at major airports and fully equipped to handle the servicing and maintenance of all types of aircraft
From the large air carriers used by majors service carriers and business corporations to singlesingleengine aircraft

Have a multi-plex operations, but most have a multisingle operations base

MAJOR
Some affiliated with franchise and operate nationally and internationally, Whereas others are independently owned and operated but have a network affiliation with other independents Major type of FBOs either independently operated/ part of a larger corporation whose interests extend beyond FBO with million revenues

MEDIUM SIZE
Different from the MAJOR in terms of
The size of investment (at 50 million with sales volume range to 5-25 million) 5-

But also located at air-carrier served airports airAt least must be able to remove and repair any aircraft that might use their facility in the event/ situation such aircraft become disabled on the ramps or runaways

SMALL
Out of 3500 FBOs 2000 are small-U.S. smallA.k.a mom-and-pop shops : Doing business mom-andon shoestring using the cash drawer system
Early year: So much money Mid year: Some goes out some comes in End year: What is left is profit

But very vulnerable in the modern business environment

SMALL
Majority of its operators have no business training Commonly started by s/one who loves aviation: An aeronautical specialist A pilot Mechanic Technician- engine rebuilder, radio expert, sheet Technicianmetal fabricator

Then the business grows to meet the increasing demands of the aviation public

SPECIAL
They are some extremely specialized aviation operations found at public airports Not really a true FBOs but provide necessary services and considered as essential in aviation industry Operated by engine manufacturers and remanufacturers, avionics, propeller specialists, and flight training specialists

FBOFBO-Profitability
There can be no general aviation transportation w/out a nationwide system of FBOs to support it FBOs are the backbone of general aviation transportation In recent time, the industry is now in the position to develop and sustain rational groth and profitability as the supply and demand increasing