Airport real estate broker Brendan Clarke recalls the damage Mother Nature wreaked upon his local Colorado Springs Airport on July 28, 2016, during one of the region’s infrequent but punishing hail storms. It caused more than $350 million in insurance claims to the area, landing it on the list of costliest storms to hit the state, and resulted in extensive damage to many private aircraft parked on the ramp at the time, including a Gulfstream GV and a Cessna Citation Sovereign.
“There were a significant number of expensive corporate jets and training aircraft that were total write-offs, yet there was space available, both in the big FBO hangars and the smaller individual hangars on the airport,” he said.
An aviator himself, with experience flying Jaguar fighter-bombers for the Royal New Zealand Air Force and the UK Royal Air Force, as a Boeing 757 instructor and 777 pilot for Air New Zealand, and currently a contract pilot for Eclipse 500s, Clarke began to think about ways to easily and quickly connect aircraft owners with available hangar space.
As a result, he developed HangarTonight, a website that can help pilots and operators find shelter for their aircraft on short notice. Hangar keepers with available space can list their property with the company, in a style similar to hotel booking applications such as HotelTonight. They will enter their hangar, or in the case of a larger, partially occupied hangar, the vacant space, as well as the rental price and contact information.
There are a variety of reasons for hangar vacancy—a based tenant's aircraft might be out for maintenance or away on a long mission or a tenant might be between aircraft. HangarTonight requires hangar keepers to keep their financial information on file, not only to facilitate payment, but also as a security check to ensure that they are authorized to rent out that hangar.
When a pilot or operator accesses the site searching for a hangar, they will enter their dates of need, aircraft type, and desired travel radius from their destination. The website will then analyze the hangars in that area and compare them with the aircraft’s dimensions. “It will show you only hangars that are available and that your airplane will fit inside,” Clarke told AIN. “If you’ve got a Gulfstream G550 and it’s a small T-hangar, that won’t populate because obviously your airplane won’t fit.”
The web service also stipulates that the hangar owner should have the appropriate hangar keeper's insurance and have protection for the likes of "hangar rash" before listing and accepting reservations. With the chat feature, Clarke stresses the aircraft owner should ask those questions when making the booking.
Though the company cannot offer such insurance itself due to its small size, that could change as it grows. "In the future, with more business, we hope to be able to offer the insurance as an add-on, much like car rental where you can add-on the collision damage waiver insurance," Clarke said.
When matches are found, the aircraft operator will select a preferred location, and the system will send a text and email to the hangar owner, who will then initiate a chat dialog with the aircraft operator. Unlike the hotel-booking applications, the site will not confirm the reservation until the hangar owner accepts the availability and the suitability of the space. This is to prevent miscommunication, such as the hangar no longer being available or is occupied during the requested period.
Once accepted, the site will then direct the aircraft operator to a payment screen to enter their tail number, prepay for the reservation, and a fee will be paid to the website. Once that transaction is completed, the sides will receive each other’s telephone number to remain in further contact and pass along hangar door codes, if necessary, or update aircraft arrival times.
According to Clarke, this will give pilots peace of mind knowing they will have a hangar as soon as they arrive, rather than having to wait until an FBO might determine its availability.
The website was launched last year at NBAA 2018, and in the time since Clarke has been working to develop greater coverage across the country. He noted that he has had some discussions with FBO chains about listing their properties in the system. While the company intends to charge hangar keepers a small subscription fee to list their properties, Clarke will waive that for the first year.
Based on his site’s usage, Clarke has developed a “heat map” showing where hangar requests are the greatest. It includes California, Arizona, Texas, Georgia, and Florida, or as he describes it “anywhere there is weather.”