The Orange County (California) board of supervisors on Tuesday selected ACI Jet and Clay Lacy as the two full-service FBO operators that will receive new long-term leases at John Wayne-Orange County Airport (SNA) in response to a request for proposals (RFP) the county issued last September.
Under the airport’s redevelopment and rezoning plan, San Luis Obispo, California-based ACI Jet, which had replaced Signature Flight Support in 2017, was selected to remain as the service provider on the northeast side of the field. On the northwest side, Clay Lacy Aviation, which is headquartered in Van Nuys, California, was chosen to replace incumbent Atlantic Aviation, despite Atlantic scoring 475 points out of a possible 500 in the RFP—the highest score of any of the applicants—compared with Clay Lacy’s score of 393.
Other major FBO chains Jet Aviation and Million Air also responded to the RFP, which closed on June 1, after an addendum to the original request was added.
AIN reached out to the Orange County board of supervisors about why Atlantic Aviation, as the highest-scoring company in the RFP process, wasn't awarded a lease, but the board had not yet responded at press time. "We are very surprised that we were not awarded the bid based on our score and our 17-year tenure at SNA," Atlantic Aviation CEO Lou Pepper told AIN.