Fixed-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 re-inspection
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
 Fixed-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.
 Fixed-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
 Fixed-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

resources at a particular location sometimes
subcontract ground handling or on-call aircraft
maintenance to another airline, as it is a
short-term cheaper alternative to setting up
its 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 on-
board 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
flight 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,
Deicing Ground power
 Passenger Service
• This includes services inside the airport terminal
such as:
• Providing check-in counter services for the
passengers 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
• 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
– Small
– 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 single-
engine aircraft
• Have a multi-plex operations, but most have a
single 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)
• But also located at air-carrier served airports
• At 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.
• A.k.a ‘mom-and-pop shops’: Doing business
on 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
metal 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
 FBO-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