Jetex Calls for New Term To Replace Aging ‘FBO’ Moniker

A Middle East FBO specialist has issued a call to the business aviation industry to create a new name for the FBO, suggesting the existing term has become outmoded after 100 years of use. In an open letter to the global industry, Adel Martini, president and CEO of Dubai-based Jetex Flight Support, said, “We're challenging the history of aviation to not just redefine, but reinvent, the term ‘fixed base operator’ (FBO),” Mardini wrote. “We are initiating an opportunity for aviation experts and passengers alike to ask themselves what the term 'FBO' means to them and to share what it means [with] us.”

Mardini argues that towards the end of World War I, civil aviation was virtually unregulated and consisted mainly of transient pilots, operating military surplus aircraft that landed wherever they could. This prompted them to set up temporary camps offering aircraft maintenance and flight training, which by 1926, when aviation regulations were put in place, became what we now know as FBOs, he wrote.

“The description of an FBO labels it as a gas station for planes, but since its origin in 1918, it has progressed to mean a relaxed and stress-free setting for busy travelers.”

Jetex has committed to set up more than 50 FBOs around the world by 2020. More than 25 are understood to be operational today. Its facility at the VIP Terminal at Dubai South has won worldwide plaudits for its quality and level of hospitality.

“Since the launch of FBOs, the need to travel for business has increased dramatically and the demand for high standards even more so,” Mardini wrote. “I ask you to question whether you agree that the evolution of FBOs prompts a chance to rename then in order to fully celebrate the extent of what they now offer.”

Signature Flight Support attempted to introduce the expression ‘flight support operation,’ or FSO, as early as 2004. Although perhaps not meant to refer to individual facilities, it did not catch on. In a master plan update for the St. Petersburg, Florida-based Clearwater International Airport, published in 2004, Signature claimed to be “the world's largest flight support operation (FSO) and distribution network for business and commercial aviation services, and provides fixed base operator (FBO), charter operations, and ground handling services.”        

Mardini does not suggest a new term himself but challenges the industry to come up with one. “I ask you to question whether you agree that the evolution of FBOs prompts a chance to rename them in order to fully celebrate the extent of what they now offer,” he said. “Change is inevitable and we believe that 100 years is enough. What would the natural evolution of the FBO as a name be?”