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APRIL 2016 AviationPros.com 25 FBO FOCUS with a Gulfstream G450, and park at the FBO. Next, rent a four-door car, and drive downtown for the day. Park the car in a well maintained, fenced parking lot, com- plete with a security camera system and a parking attendant. What was the cost to park the rental car for the day? For the purpose of this example, let's say the rental car was a Toyota Camry, and the parking fee was $15 for the day. Dimensionally, the Toyota accounts for 96 square feet, which means a mere $0.15 was applied on a per square foot basis. Now, charge the 7,020-square-foot Gulfstream the same per square footage price for the day. The net result? A $1,053 daily parking fee for the airplane! Yet, it is exactly the same formula applied to a parking lot. Highway robbery? Hardly. FBOs are wise to consider the real cost of parking aircraft, and should charge accordingly. Finally, the unbuildable areas of a leasehold can be the source of occasional tension between an airport and an FBO. Customarily, airports increase leasehold rates on set schedules; every three to fve years for example. For an FBO, this stings all the more when a signifcant portion of their leasehold is unbuildable. With a trickle of a revenue stream to offset cost, FBOs are left little recourse but to lobby for height limitation discounts, aviation-use discounts or otherwise from their airport for their non-buildable areas. Airports themselves, though handling large volumes of money from a budgetary perspective, are likewise run on a shoestring--as excess fees are channeled back into infrastructure or other airport improvement programs. Somewhere in the pricing chain the weakest link must give. It's academic that airports should charge leasehold fees, and FBOs should charge parking fees. It would seem logical that end-users — aircraft oper- ators — should expect to pay handling fees, parking fees or both. And yet, that notion is the source of a very real debate. It is no small irony that debate takes place below an FAA defned imaginary surface. Ground Support Specialist GS350: Te NEW Generation Belt Loader How much are aircraf strikes costing you? ➢ GSS Aircraf Strike Avoidance System is designed to stop aircraf strikes before they happen, limiting human error. ➢ GSS System can detect size, distance, relative trajectory and relative speed of objects in its feld of view. ➢ Designed to withstand the harsh ramp environment, from vibration, temperature fuctuations, moisture, dust & dirt. ➢ LED Lights ➢ 4-Wheel Disc Brakes ➢ Front Access Steps ➢ Integrated Rear Steps 2205 Cole Rd., Horn Lake, MS Phone: (662) 342-1412 www.GSSONLINE.com "Innovation for a Safer Ramp" AviationPros.com/10017370 ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Douglas Wilson, President & Founder, FBO Partners LLC, is the president and founder of FBO Partners LLC, an aviation consulting firm that provides asset management of hangar facilities for FBOs, and offers specialized consulting in due diligence, contract life-cycle management, and other FBO disciplines. Wilson can be reached at douglas.wilson@fbopartners.com.