Change is in the air at Texas’s Lone Star Executive Airport (CXO), which is in the process of changing its name to Conroe-North Houston Regional Airport. The change becomes official in March. The airport opened in 1939 and was promptly taken over by the U.S. Navy for flight training and drone research. After World War II it returned to civil use as Montgomery County Airport until 2003, when it became known as Lone Star Executive.

The airport is changing its name to give potential users a clearer indication of its location. “It was evident at trade shows and marketing the airport that the name Lone Star did not give a good geographic identity because those who we would market it to would guess it was in Texas, but that’s about it,” said airport director Scott Smith. The airport serves the northern suburbs of Houston, the major economic driver in the area, so that part of the new title was easy, but airport planners also wanted to tie it to the growing city of Conroe, which they believe could become a destination unto itself over the next 20 years. A new entrance under construction at the airport will provide a direct path to Interstate 45, and that road will pass through a new industrial park and technology park. The operator expects the airport’s proximity to attract tenants and customers to both.

CXO itself has seen steady growth in traffic over the past several years, now averaging 62,000 operations a year. “What’s interesting within those numbers is the continuing gap between itinerant traffic and local traffic,” Smith told AIN. “That used to be more or less 50-50, and we’re finding out now our itinerant traffic is in the 60th percentile.” That growth has manifested itself in an uptick in annual fuel flowage at the airport, 1.5 million gallons today compared with 600,000 gallons a decade ago.

More Amenities for Business Jets

Last year, CXO completed a long-anticipated expansion of Runway 14/32, its main runway. The additional 1,500 feet brings the runway to 7,500 feet, making it possible for most business aircraft to take off without weight restrictions during the scorching Texas summer heat. “What we wanted to do is have a runway where 95 percent of business aircraft could go out at 90-percent maximum takeoff weight at 94 degrees Fahrenheit,” said Smith. “You look around at a couple of other general aviation airports in the Houston Metroplex and that tells the story. David Wayne Hooks [Memorial Airport] has a 7,000-foot runway and Sugarland Regional has 8,000 feet. Six thousand feet in this climate, at our elevation, was insufficient.”

With a runway now able to accommodate larger business jets, U.S. Customs service opened at the airport earlier this month. The 3,300-sq-ft facility, built to CBP specifications at a cost of $2.5 million, was paid for by a partnership among Montgomery County, the City of Conroe and private investment firm Black Forest Ventures, which operates Galaxy FBO on the field and donated ramp space to accommodate the building. It will operate under the federal user-fee airport program, which reimburses CBP for all operating costs via fees collected from arriving aircraft. The addition of customs service will allow long-range business jets to fly direct from Central and South America, Canada and Europe, bypassing the congested metro-Houston airspace. The results of an economic study commissioned by airport authorities suggest to Smith that the airport will see 5-percent more traffic annually as a result of Customs’ presence, along with approximately $5 million more a year in economic activity at CXO.

In another development, the number of service providers at the airport recently shrank to two, after Galaxy FBO acquired and consolidated Wing Jet Center’s assets into its own facility. Investment firm Black Forest Ventures, Galaxy’s parent company, had purchased Wing’s aircraft charter and management operation, Wing Aviation, in 2012, and included in this latest transaction are a small terminal, which will be shuttered, and four hangars totaling 70,000 sq ft of space at CXO capable of sheltering aircraft up to a G650. These will now be known as Galaxy North, and the company says it hopes to use them to entice an MRO provider to set up shop as a tenant. The acquisitions will bring the FBO to 160,000 sq ft of hangar space.

Black Forest, which purchased Galaxy Air Service in late 2012 and moved into a newly built FBO complex in 2014, also just broke ground on two more hangars, which when completed by year-end will add 35,000 sq ft of aircraft storage space.

General Aviation Services, the other remaining FBO on the field, changed hands this summer when it was sold to the Herd Air Group after 34 years under family ownership. According to pilot Chad Herdrich, who bought the seven-acre facility, he has plans to attract more transient jet traffic to the facility while doubling its 50,000 sq ft of hangar space and adding an aircraft arrivals canopy. The location has a 3,000-sq-ft terminal with two conference rooms, pilots’ lounge and cinema, shower facilities and kitchen. One of the longest tenured Avfuel dealers, it will be offering bonus Avtrip points on fuel purchases through the end of November. 

Van Nuys, California-based aircraft charter, management, FBO and maintenance firm Clay Lacy Aviation is merging with Key Air, an aircraft management and charter company in Oxford, Connecticut. The Keystone Aviation FBO, a sister company of Key Air, is not part of the transaction.

After a transition period, the combined company will move forward as Clay Lacy Aviation, representing more than 75 aircraft in 15 U.S. locations, along with FBOs and maintenance centers in Van Nuys and Seattle and standalone maintenance centers in Carlsbad, California, and Oxford. A Clay Lacy spokesman told AIN that integration of the two companies is under way at the U.S.FAA level and should be completed by year-end.

“Our clients asked us for a larger presence in New York, and this is the first of several strategic steps to expand our East Coast services,” said Clay Lacy Aviation president Brian Kirkdoffer. “We now have a team of aviation experts on both coasts, focused on providing safety, service and value in the business aviation industry.”

Fractional operator Flexjet will open its second private terminal, its first in the Northeast, this fall at Westchester County Airport in White Plains, New York. Located in Hangar F—formerly home to International Paper’s flight department, which relocated to Memphis with the company’s headquarters—on the east side of the field near the airline terminal, the 30,000-sq-ft building is being renovated to accommodate Flexjet's fleet. According to the company, part of the upgrade was to enlarge the hangar doors to accommodate the large aircraft Flexjet is currently flying, such as the Gulfstream G450 and Bombardier Global Express, as well as the G650s and G500s it has on order. 

The facility, intended for the exclusive use of the “substantial concentration” of Flexjet owners who live in the northern suburbs of New York City, will be able to house up to 15 aircraft and allow the company to have more assets available near those customers. The modernized location will offer an owners’ lounge, conference rooms, private work space, Wi-Fi connectivity and representatives to assist with current or future flights.

Flexjet opened its first private terminal at Naples (Florida) Municipal Airport in February, and another is under development in Palm Beach, Florida. In addition, according to the company, the private terminals will extend the level of service provided through its premium Red Label program.    

Talon Air at Republic Airport in Farmingdale, New York, has joined Signature Select as the newest location in the Signature Flight Support FBO network, the companies announced today. Under the Signature Select program, independent FBOs have all the benefits of the network, such as global sales and marketing, while maintaining their existing name and brand. Locations can participate in Signature’s Status loyalty and TailWins rewards programs, as well as the chain’s training programs.

According to Signature Flight Support president and COO Maria Sastre, “Talon Air has been a long-term customer with its aircraft-charter services and managed fleet of aircraft.” She added, “Now they are able to offer their clients all of the benefits of Signature’s global network.”

Talon Air's facility at Republic Airport includes more than 100,000sqft of hangar, executive terminal and office space. In addition to charter/management and FBO services, the company offers flight-support solutions, as well as FAA Part 145-approved MRO services. Talon’s fleet of owned and managed business aircraft ranges from helicopters to turboprops to large-cabin jets. Notably, it is the largest fleet operator of Hawker 4000s.

While its initial start may have been rocky, Luxivair SBD, the lone FBO at California’s San Bernardino International Airport (SBD) has seen nothing but smooth skies of late. SBD’s roots took hold when the former Norton Air Force base closed in 1994 after half a century of military ownership and was transferred to municipal use. Given the facility’s tired infrastructure, $250 million was spent on rehabilitation: replacing the 10,000-foot-long, 200-foot-wide main runway, bringing the control tower back on line, building a new taxiway, ramp areas and fuel farm, constructing new domestic and international terminals, rewiring the airfield and renovating hangars with new roofs and fire-suppression systems, all this coming after massive environmental cleanup, a legacy from its former owners.

The $20 million FBO opened as a Million Air franchise, part of one of the companies run by airport developer Scot Spencer, who had his hands in many of the businesses on the field. His control of the FBO lasted barely two years and ended soon after a February 2012 incident when the FBO ran out of fuel.

Authorities seized control of the airport’s fueling operation, setting up shop in a double-wide trailer, while Million Air terminated its branding agreement with the company, citing unpaid management and franchise fees. A stipulation in the lease agreement specified that the FBO had to be partnered with a nationally recognized service provider, and after a flurry of lawsuits, a bankruptcy judge ordered SBD Airport Services to vacate the facility, giving the airport authority full control of the FBO in December 2012, and it has retained control ever since.

“We are pleased to put that behind us and move forward,” said Mark Gibbs, SBD’s director of aviation. “We wanted to make sure that folks visiting the airport were not only getting the services that they needed, but were also walking away impressed. We have a great facility but we keep our prices well placed in the market, with the intent of providing a lot of value to our customers.”

Alternative to Busier L.A. Area

The 12,000-sq-ft two-story FBO terminal offers a spacious glass-enclosed atrium lobby, ramp-side vehicle access, pilots’ lounge, snooze room, a 14-seat A/V-equipped conference room, theater room with stadium seating, flight-planning room, crew cars, on-site car rental, complimentary snack bar and an outdoor lounge offering a panoramic view of the airport framed by the San Bernardino Mountains. At six years old, the facility remains in pristine condition, but the airport authority recently commissioned an acoustical study to combat one of its few flaws: the level of echoes in the domed lobby, caused by its abundance of glass and the stone floor tiles. A $50,000 investment in sound-attenuating panels provided the remedy.

Another benefit is on-site U.S. Customs, which helps international flights avoid some of Southern California’s more congested airspace and provides another option to LAX, Palm Springs International and Van Nuys. The Inland Empire region in which San Bernardino is located sits just outside the Los Angeles area and is the 10th largest metropolitan area, larger than Denver, Phoenix or Boston. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, four million people live within 25 miles of the airport.

The Epic-branded facility is open from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m., with after-hours callout available. It has a fuel farm with capacity for 150,000 gallons of jet-A, served by six refuelers (two 15,000-gallon, two 10,000-gallon, one 7,000-gallon and a 5,000-gallon truck). On the avgas side, three tankers of 5,000 gallons, 2,500 gallons and 1,000 gallons shuttle fuel from the 24,000-gallon tank. “We’re in good shape with refuelers and sometimes we need every one of those trucks,” Gibbs told AIN, referring to this summer’s wildfires, which raged in the San Bernardino area and torched more than 37,000 acres. “We’ve got the Forest Service tanker base here, and there have been times when we moved 400,000 gallons of fuel.” Generally, he noted, the FBO pumps 1.5 million gallons of fuel a year. In high-tempo periods such as fire season, which sees constant operations from morning until dusk, the location’s eight-person staff is supplemented by the airport operations team, which has been cross trained under the NATA Safety 1st program.

According to Gibbs, normal operations at the airport averaged a steady 25,000 operations a year between 2009 and 2012, but after the airport took over control of the FBO and started marketing it, that number has climbed continuously to about 40,000 last year. So far this year, it is 20 percent over that level of activity. It also sees a lot of traffic drawn to the five Part 145 repair stations operating on the field.

Fifteen of the 50 aircraft based at the airport are turbine powered, ranging from a 90-series King Air to a privately owned 747SP. Regularly handling such a large aircraft was good experience when Air Force One and President Obama came calling earlier this year, according to FBO manager Wendy Bechtel. “There is no airplane too big or too small for us,” she said. “If you come in in a Long EZ or Cessna 150, you are going to be treated the same as if you came in in a G650.” 

Thailand-based aviation services provider MJets inaugurated its new FBO at Bangkok Don Mueang International Airport on September 18. The facility has a terminal with a 3,400-sq-ft lounge, including private meeting rooms and a separate area for private accommodations, on-site customs, immigration and security service. It also has a new shower-equipped crew lounge and rest area, nearly tripling the size of the crew area in the previous facility, along with four conference/training rooms. The largest one can accommodate 60 people.

As part of the $8.6 million project, MJets, the exclusive FBO at the airport, also added 52,000 sq ft of hangar space that can accommodate an ACJ or BBJ, taking total indoor storage to 84,000 sq ft. Last year the company became the first FBO in Southeast Asia to earn accreditation under IBAC’s International Standard for Business Aircraft Handling (IS-BAH).

“Southeast Asia is an important and evolving market for business aviation, and Bangkok is the center of this growth,” said Jaiyavat Navaraj, the company’s executive chairman. “For this reason, MJets is committed to the regional development and has invested almost 300 million Thai Baht [$8.6 million] in this state-of-the-art-facility.” According to a company spokesman, the former FBO building was returned to the Airport Authority of Thailand, which will use it to serve the Royal Family or government VIP flights.

MJets also offers aircraft charter and management services, and its maintenance operation recently received U.S.FAA Part 145 approval.

At the beginning of next month, Oklahoma’s Lawton-Fort Sill Regional Airport will assume control of the lone FBO at the field. The Lawson Metropolitan Area Airport Authority voted unanimously this month to end the lease of incumbent FBO operator LaSill Aviation, which sought to exit its agreement.

While LaSill had provided aviation services (including airliner fueling) there for a decade, the airport has suffered from accelerated deterioration of its 8,600-foot runway, and as a result limited traffic to regional jets and smaller aircraft. The FBO’s owners subsequently informed the authority that they would have to close for lack of fueling revenue from large aircraft.

Plans to transfer the remaining five years of the lease to another aviation company based at a nearby airport fell through after the two sides could not come to an agreement over a lease extension and possible rent abeyance. The recently renovated location will offer a pilot lounge, conference room, Wi-Fi, flight planning area, crew cars and on-site car rentals.

As it prepares for the opening next month of its second FBO, Meridian has named Epic Fuels as the branded fuel supplier for the newly built Hayward (California) Executive Airport facility. The new FBO is on the other side of the country from its flagship Teterboro, N.J. location, where it has been a fixture since it was founded in 1958.

The West Coast location, which will accept the Epic card, will be the second service provider at the San Francisco-area airfield. It will feature a 6,300-sq-ft terminal and office building along with a 30,000-sq-ft hangar capable of sheltering the latest class of ultra-long-range business jets. The facility will also serve as a West Coast base for the company’s aircraft charter management fleet, and Meridian plans to eventually add a Part 145 repair station.

The company has a 50-year lease on the property and is planning a second phase of construction to add another 12,000-sq-ft terminal, two 40,000-sq-ft hangars and more ramp space to bring the facility to more than 10 acres.

“Starting up an entirely new operation that lives up to the Meridian name requires excellence on all fronts, and we’re confident that Epic Fuels is the right partner for us as we build an exceptional, world-class facility at Hayward,” said Meridian CEO Ken Forester.

Avflight has expanded its FBO network to 16, mainly U.S., locations, with its latest acquisition of JPS Aviation, the lone service provider at Louisiana’s Monroe Regional Airport. The FBO, which is open from 6 a.m. until 10 p.m. seven days a week, handles all fueling on the airport, including commercial and military aircraft, from its 150,000-gallon tank farm, supplied by sister company Avfuel.

Its facility features a 6,000-sq-ft two-story terminal with pilot's lounge, snooze room, shower facilities, outdoor balcony, 10-seat conference room, six crew vehicles, onsite car rental and Wi-Fi. The location also offers 150,000 sq ft of hangar space capable of storing super-midsize jets, and Avflight is in the process of having the facility’s Part 145 maintenance and avionics certificate transferred.

“Joining Avflight is a grand opportunity for our FBO and the airport,” said John Mullen, the FBO’s general manager. ‘We’ve always delivered a high standard of service, but the level of support and branding recognition Avflight provides will help us thrive in an evolving market for years to come.”

AIN has learned that AirFlite, the perennially highly rated FBO at Southern California’s Long Beach Airport/Daugherty Field, has been sold to Ross Aviation. According to a source, parent company Toyota, which has owned the FBO for more than a quarter century, informed the staff of the sale last Friday, and a Ross Aviation transition team was at the site earlier this week. 

Speculation about the fate of the location had swirled since 2014, when Toyota announced it was relocating its North American headquarters from the Los Angeles area to Plano, Texas. The automaker’s North American flight department was one of the major tenants at the FBO.

The reconstituted Ross Aviation, backed by private-equity firm KSC Capital Partners, was formed from the six FBOs that Signature Flight Support was required to divest as a condition of its purchase of Landmark Aviation earlier this year. The previous Ross Aviation chain of 19 FBOs was itself sold to Landmark in 2014.

According to the source, the transaction is expected to close by the end of November, at which time the location will be renamed Ross Aviation-Long Beach, as Toyota will retain the AirFlite name.

As AIN’s FBO beat editor for the last several years, I have been tasked with riding herd on our annual FBO Reader Survey, and as a result of that close involvement with the best FBOs in the country, I have gotten to know many of them well, particularly the perennial top finishers. Some I have also had the pleasure of visiting. For the independent FBO locations, our survey is their Super Bowl, their Oscars, Emmys, Grammys, Golden Globes and People’s Choice Awards, what-have-you, all rolled into one. They appreciate what being highly rated by their customers/our readers means to their business, and in most cases view it as a measure of recognition for the good work done by their staff.

Earlier this year I was surprised by the sale of Tampa International Jet Center (TIJC), a regular top five-rated location, to Sheltair. While the factors behind the transaction, once explained, made perfect sense from both sides of the equation, it meant another proud, fiercely independent FBO had vanished in the consolidation cauldron.

That situation was just repeated as AirFlite, another top performer in our survey, was sold by parent company Toyota, to the recently reconstituted Ross Aviation. Again, the factors make perfect sense. In addition to providing decades of exemplary service to general aviation traffic at Los Angeles-area Long Beach Airport/Daugherty Field, AirFlite had also served as home to Toyota’s North American flight department. In 2014, when the company announced plans to relocate its North American headquarters from Southern California to Plano, Texas, many felt the writing was on the wall. Ross is looking to re-establish itself as a growing FBO chain, and the addition of a premier FBO such as AirFlite, along with locations at Washington Dulles and NYC-area Westchester County Airport, among others, can only fortify its stature.

I had the opportunity to visit the FBO a few years ago when Heli-Expo was held in nearby Anaheim. Throughout its nearly quarter century of existence, the facility has been meticulously maintained, and while I waited for my hosts in the spacious atrium lobby with its centerpiece tropical aquarium, my eye was drawn to a framed and matted copy of the AINFBO Survey from 1994. There, perched at the top of the list of that year’s top 25 FBOs, was AirFlite, one of the few facilities still with the same name and ownership.

Upon completion of the sale in November, both will change, according to sources familiar with the transaction. The previous Ross Aviation maintained the names of individual FBOs instead of rebranding them, a practice that created the largest FBO chain no one had heard of. In its new iteration, Ross had to rebrand the six former Landmark FBOs to Ross Aviation locations, as Signature retained the Landmark Aviation name for its aircraft charter/management division, which it acquired in the Landmark purchase. Likewise, Toyota opted to retain the AirFlite name, which will result in the facility being renamed Ross Aviation Long Beach. The AirFlite FBO name will go out on top, having earned the top position in our FBO survey for the past three years.

I offer Jeff Ross and his team the same unsolicited advice I gave to the Sheltair folks upon learning of their TIJC purchase: just change the name over the door and walk away. These people know how to run an FBO, and if it ain't broke, don’t fix it.

Industry data provider Argus International announced that its TraqPak FBO business aviation live flight tracking software is now integrated with FlightBridge’s online reservation and communication tool. FlightBridge supports FBO reservations, hotel, car rental and car service bookings, as well as catering requests.

“Our mission is to make the lives of FBO personnel easier and support the best possible experience for aircraft operators, passengers and crew,” said FlightBridge president Dudley King. “Through our integration with TraqPak, FBOs now have everything they need at their fingertips without having to jump back and forth between multiple systems.”

The TraqPak portal is powered by Flightview and features interactive and searchable arrival and departure grids, and allows customizable color coding to track specific groupings such as VIPs or based customers. Users can also track traffic activity at their airport and competing airports.

According to Argus, the new integration will be offered as a complimentary service to its TraqPak FBO customers. “This will be a huge benefit to FBOs that already use FlightBridge and TraqPak FBO, and will be a great tool for any FBO that wants to improve efficiency and customer service by managing flight tracking and reservations all in one system,” said Shirley Mason, senior vice president for Argus Market Intelligence.

Connecticut-based aircraft services provider Volo Aviation has been selected to manage the FBO at New York’s Ogdensburg International Airport, near the Canadian border. In addition to handling the GAFBO services, Volo will provide into-plane fueling for Allegiant Air, which will begin commercial air service at the airport starting next month.

The airport recently underwent a major expansion, which boosted the length of its runway by 1,000 feet to 6,400 feet to accommodate larger airliners, and added a 425-space parking lot. “The Ogdensburg airport has a lot of potential for both commercial and general aviation,” said Volo senior vice president Brian Ciambra. “Our initial challenge is to make the aviation community aware of what this airport has to offer.”

The rebranded FBO will be the company’s fifth U.S. location, all of which are on the East Coast. Volo's newest addition features a 2,500-sq-ft terminal with a pilots' lounge, weather and flight briefing room and business center. Ciambra told AINhe expects to begin a refurbishment of the structure within the next several months.

“We are extremely pleased to be working with a company like Volo Aviation and believe this will be a mutually beneficial relationship,” noted Wade Davis, executive director of the Ogdensburg Bridge and Port Authority. “Volo officials share our vision for making this airport successful.”

The Paragon Network, a group of independent “elite” FBOs, has welcomed three new locations to its ranks. The former Landmark Aviation facilities at New York’s Westchester County Airport (HPN) and at Washington Dulles International (IAD), now owned by the reconstituted Ross Aviation, have both become part of the network. At HPN, Ross offers two separate FBOs facilities, while the FBO at Dulles is currently undergoing a $2.5 million renovation which will be completed by year-end.

“We are thrilled that Ross Aviation at White Plains and Washington-Dulles have joined our exquisite group of FBOs,” said Megan Barnes, Paragon’s executive vice president. “Their commitment to excellence and distinguished management team bring a great deal of knowledge and experience to our network.”

Paragon also welcomed its first Mississippi FBO, the Tunica Air Center, in the northern part of the state. It features an 11,000-sq-ft terminal and an 8,200-sq-ft arrival and departure canopy. “Tunica Air Center is proud to be the first Paragon Network FBO servicing Northwest Mississippi and the MidSouth Memphis, Tennessee area,” said FBO executive director Eric Konupka. “Joining the network will allow us to offer additional benefits to our current customers and build new relationships through the networking capabilities that Paragon Aviation provides.”

To join the network, which was founded in 2011 and now numbers 28 locations in the U.S., Canada and the Caribbean, FBOs undergo a facility audit conducted by Paragon. Each member FBO must also comply with a set of core standards to remain in the group. Clients using the network are eligible for Paragon Preferred status, which includes access to custom fuel pricing, dispatching fuel requests to network locations and making reservations through the group’s website.

Another private equity firm has thrown its hat into the FBO consolidation ring with the announcement late last week that Destin Jet, the lone aviation services provider at Florida’s Destin Executive Airport, was acquired by The Sterling Group, which manages more than $2.4 billion in assets. According to the Houston-based, middle-market private equity firm, the location will become the cornerstone of a new FBO network, the name of which will be released in the coming months.

The company has assembled a team of industry veterans in its new endeavor, including former Encore and Trajen chairman, Landmark Aviation board member and current Sterling Group partner Greg Elliott, along with Chad Farischon and Tyson Goetz, both former members of the Trajen and Landmark management teams. “Sterling is thrilled to partner with a talented team in Chad and Tyson,” noted Elliott. “Having worked together at both Trajen and Landmark, we knew that they were the right leaders to build a premier network.”

A company spokesperson told AINthat this new FBO network is one of the first platforms in Sterling’s new $1.25 billion fund, and that the company has a long-term vision to build the “right network with the right partners.” Destin Jet operates two terminals at the Northwestern Florida gateway.

Signature Flight Support has completed rebranding the former Airborne Aviation facility at New York’s Stewart International Airport in Newburgh, N.Y., making the location at the Metro New York City reliever airport the company’s eighth FBO in the New York/New Jersey area. It joins Signature facilities at Teterboro, Westchester County/White Plains, Newark, Atlantic City, Syracuse, Trenton and Morristown.

The BBA Aviation subsidiary assumed the remainder of Airborne’s lease earlier this summer after Airborne requested to break its lease with the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey while there was still another year and a half remaining. One of two service providers at the airport, the facility offers a pilots lounge, Wi-Fi, on-site car rental, crew cars and a passenger lounge, as well as the chain’s TailWins and Signature Status loyalty programs.

B. Coleman Aviation, one of two service providers at Gary/Chicago International Airport (GYY), has received approval from the airport authority for expansion. The company debuted its $9 million FBO, including a 52,000-sq-ft hangar in November 2014, and has received a 30-year lease for a parcel of land north of its current facility. The first phase of its new expansion plan calls for constructing a 40,000-sq-ft hangar at a minimum investment of $5 million over the next year, while future development will allow the company to build an additional four hangars with investment pegged at $15 million.

“In the past two years, our business at Gary/Chicago International Airport has grown significantly, and we no longer have enough space to meet demand,” said company president John Girzadas. “We are excited about the future growth prospects for the airport. Our plans reflect not only where we think the airport is today, but where it is going in the future.”

Last year, GYY completed a $174 million expansion project, lengthening its main runway from 7,000 feet to 8,900 feet. Gary Jet Center, the other FBO on the field, also recently added two new hangars.

On October 15, Hillsboro Aviation welcomed customers and neighbors to the grand opening of its elegant new FBO at Oregon’s Portland-Hillsboro Airport. The event also mounted a gathering of vintage aviation and transportation technology, from aircraft to cars and motorcycles.

The new FBO facility was completed earlier this year and in May began serving customers, not just FBO patrons but also those who use the company’s aircraft sales, charter, management, avionics and maintenance services and firefighting and search-and-rescue helicopters. Hillsboro Aviation is also the exclusive commercial aircraft sales agent for Airbus Helicopters in the U.S. as well as an authorized service center for Bell light and medium and Robinson helicopters and Cessna piston singles and turboprop Caravans. The company’s charter fleet consists of two King Airs and 13 helicopters. Nearly 90 people work at Hillsboro Aviation, 25 of them maintenance technicians.

“Our goal is to create an extraordinary experience for customers,” said Max Lyons, president and CEO of Hillsboro Aviation, and this is reflected in the FBO’s warm, inviting Northwest outdoors theme: the passenger lounge has Douglas fir accents, sleek polished concrete floors, a large rough-hewn fireplace and local artwork.

Hillsboro Aviation used to be located on the south side of the airport in older facilities, but in November 2014 it sold the flight school to a group of investors, and that business now operates as the Hillsboro Aero Academy. In the middle of last year, ground was broken on the new 51,000-sq-ft FBO and hangar, and less than a year later its doors opened for business on a five-acre plot on the less developed north side of the airport. The ramp covers four of those acres, and across the street from the FBO is another 4.6 acres outside the airport housing Hillsboro’s parts warehouse and 12 offices for customers.

Before designing the new FBO, Lyons and his team spent years gathering information about what kind of FBO they wanted to build, with the goal of a facility that would remain fresh and viable for the next 30 to 40 years. The spacious lobby and passenger lounge that welcomes visitors is topped by FBO and customer offices, including two large conference rooms, one of which connects to an outdoor patio facing the ramp. The FBO offers sleep rooms, a flight-planning area, full kitchen and workout room.

Company Culture

The company started in 1980 as Hillsboro Helicopters, serving what was then a largely agricultural community. As high-tech industry moved into the Portland suburb, Hillsboro Helicopters expanded its services, and in 1992 the company was purchased by Ed Cooley, former chairman and CEO of Precision Castparts, a turbine engine component manufacturer. Cooley hired Lyons as general manager; Lyons had grown up in a logging family and worked as a ground-crew member (a “choker” and “setter”) on a Sikorsky S-64 Skycrane before learning to fly and becoming an instructor at Hillsboro Helicopters. Lyons ran the school’s foreign student program and flew as a helicopter charter pilot before taking over as general manager of the operation.

Cooley and Lyons applied modern management techniques to the business, Lyons explained, “based on Ed’s more sophisticated business knowledge.” The pair conducted market surveys and crafted a business plan that split the company into three core businesses—flight training, charter and sales and service—that would be able to adapt to the up-and-down cycles typical in aviation. “We were profitable every year through 2012,” Lyons said. “It wasn’t just segment diversity, but geographical.” He attributes the company’s success to the culture that he and Cooley built, especially treating employees and customers properly and managing the company’s accounts rigorously.

In 1996, Hillsboro Helicopters became Hillsboro Aviation, and in 1999 Lyons purchased the company from Cooley, who passed away in 2000. With the flight training academy training thousands of pilots over the years, that part of the business eventually could stand on its own, and it was sold in 2014. “It was a challenge to manage,” said Lyons.

“We’re seeing more new customers since the opening in May,” he said, although Hillsboro Aviation still relies on all of its current eight revenue centers to remain healthy. “We couldn’t have built this on the FBO alone,” he added. “All the [other] stuff we do is what makes this work.”

Lyons attributes his company’s success to the culture that he and Cooley built: “sound business practices, know your numbers, be focused on the customer and hire quality people. What we created, the systems we set up, the culture, it worked.” 

The European Business Aviation Association (EBAA) said it is very pleased with the industry’s response to the first of its new AirOps Europe conferences, staged last week at Cannes Airport in the south of France (October 12 and 13). “We hoped for 300 visitors and in fact we had almost 400, so that was very positive,” commented EBAA president Brian Humphries. The event, which has some similarities with the annual NBAA Schedulers and Dispatchers conference, drew around 30 exhibiting companies, including FBOs, fuel providers, ground-handling specialists, airports and aircraft operators.

AirOps Europe included training and auditing sessions for the International Standard for Business Aircraft Handling, which a growing number of FBOs and handling providers are seeking. The event also featured “speed dating” style meetings to give companies the chance to make pitches for new business and partnerships.

The second edition of AirOps Europe will be held Sept. 20 to 21, 2017, once again in Cannes. “We want to have this event as a separate place, apart from the annual EBACE show, to meet our clients and develop new business,” said Andreas Becker, CEO of Cologne-based ground handler German Aviation Service.

Meridian has expanded its Teterboro, N.J.-based aviation services company all the way across the country, with this month's opening of its second FBO, located at California’s Hayward Executive Airport. The Epic Fuels-branded location is the second service provider at the San Francisco Bay Area airfield. It features a 6,300-sq-ft terminal and office building, with a passenger lobby offering a lounge, coffee bar, business center, conference room, pilot lounge equipped with recliners, a snooze room, pilot briefing room, shower and locker facilities, kitchen, on site car rental and crew cars.

The $10 million facility, which will also serve as a West Coast base for the company’s charter management fleet, has a 30,000-sq-ft hangar capable of sheltering the latest class of ultra-long-range business jets and 3.5 acres of ramp. Aircraft maintenance support is available as the location has a full-time licensed A&P mechanic to service Meridian’s charter aircraft as well as transients.

“We are extremely pleased to be able to announce the opening of our new FBO, Meridian Hayward, at this year’s NBAA Convention,” company CEO Ken Forester told AIN. “The genesis of this project began four years ago, and now it’s no longer a vision, but a reality. Hayward is the keystone of our long-term growth strategy, which also includes a new hangar project happening in Teterboro, and the continued expansion of our charter fleet.” 

The company, which has been a fixture at Teterboro Airport since its founding in 1958, has a 50-year lease on the Hayward property and is planning a second phase of construction there to add another 12,000-sq-ft terminal, two 40,000-sq-ft hangars and more ramp space to bring the facility to more than 10 acres. An official grand opening is slated for December 15.