The National Air Transportation Association yesterday wrote letters to local FAA airport district offices and the Illinois Department of Transportation expressing concerns about informal Part 13 complaints that the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association filed against three airports in protest of pricing practices at the FBOs there.
AOPA cited “egregious FBO pricing practices” involving the facilities at Florida’s Key West International Airport (EYW), Illinois’s Waukegan National Airport (UGN) and North Carolina’s Asheville Regional Airport (AVL). The FBOs that AOPA cited at all three airports are Signature Flight Support facilities.
“The assertions made in these complaints reflect a misunderstanding of a number of key points related to the economics of aviation businesses: the pricing of aeronautical services, industry consolidation and the airport sponsor-tenant relationship,” said NATA executive v-p Bill Deere in letters sent to the FAA Orlando and Memphis Airports District Offices and Illinois DOT. “The FBO services market is and remains a very competitive industry. Those within the aviation industry fully understand that FBOs compete vigorously with each other on price, service and quality of facilities.” Deere further questioned the interpretation of grant assurance requirements in the Part 13 complaints.
AOPA has expressed the belief that “each FBO has failed to fulfill its responsibility to protect the airport for public use through reasonable and fair pricing” and instead engaged in “egregious pricing practices under minimal oversight and in violation of standards designed to protect reasonable access to public ramp space.” The FAA has the authority to ensure airports meet their grant obligations, including reasonable and nondiscriminatory pricing, AOPA added. Among the pricing complaints were fees assessed when aircraft land at facilities for simple drop-offs without a need for any services.
Signature Flight Support, meanwhile, said it is aware of the complaints filed against the airports, and added it is “committed to fair and transparent pricing, which supports the high levels of service and safety at all of the airports we serve.”
The FBO chain noted that it invests its own capital to build, renovate and maintain its facilities and said, “We will continue to invest in all of our facilities, including ramp construction, maintenance and repair and will continue to work very closely with the airports we serve to ensure consistent service for all aviators as well as remain in compliance with the FAA, all regulatory authorities and airport requirements and conditions.”