FBO Profile: Pensacola Aviation Center

With its location on Florida’s panhandle, Pensacola Aviation Center—which has been in operation for nearly half a century at Pensacola International Airport (KPNS)—is certainly no stranger to dealing with unusual weather, but when it comes to the first recorded blizzard to hit the Gulf Coast region back in January, there was no frame of reference. “That was unprecedented, to say the least,” said Chris Adamson, the FBO’s operations manager. “We’ve gotten snow here before, but it’s only been 1 or 2 inches. We ended up with 8 and a half inches, and that caught everybody by surprise.” That surprise marked the largest single-day snowfall ever recorded in the state, breaking records that had stood for nearly a century.

KPNS was shut down on January 20, and Adamson sent his staff home while he spent the night at the FBO terminal, bunking down in the pilot lounge. He awoke to a winter wonderland, with snow drifts juxtaposed against palm trees. The sun came out that day to provide natural snow melting; snowplows were such a novelty in the state that the city of Pensacola had to contract with a Georgia municipality for some plow-equipped pickup trucks to clear its streets. To grind up the ice that was continually forming on the ramp in the cold temperatures, Adamson and those staffers who were able to reach the airport drove the facility’s heavy equipment around all day. “If they had allowed me to build a fire out there, I’d have done that,” quipped Adamson. The work paid off as the ramp was clear when the airport reopened the next morning after the two-day interruption.

One of two service providers at KPNS, Pensacola Aviation has a 5,500-sq-ft terminal that was built in 2000. It features a pilot lounge with snooze room, shower facilities, business center, two conference rooms each seating 10 and 15, a flight planning area, and crew cars. Rental cars can be delivered to the FBO. The refreshment bar offers a variety of beverages, including coffee, Gatorade, Yoo-Hoo, and—for those whose flying is done for the day—beer. A freezer contains ice cream along with frozen pizzas, which can be baked in a small oven in the lobby for anyone who wants to grab a quick snack.

The complex has nearly 50,000 sq ft of community hangar space that can accommodate up to midsize business jets, plus 43 T-hangars that can each shelter a small single-engine turboprop.

Pensacola Aviation, which has a staff of 20, is open 24/7, with those late-night hours seeing numerous aeromedical flights. An Avfuel-branded dealer, it pumps more than a million gallons of jet-A and 250,000 gallons of avgas annually from its fuel farm, which holds 30,000 gallons of jet fuel and half that amount of 100LL. It is served by one 5,000-gallon and two 3,000-gallon jet refuelers and two 1,000-gallon avgas trucks operated by the location’s NATA Safety 1st-trained line service technicians.

While KPNS has “international” in its name, that only applies to private aviation arrivals and departures. The U.S. Customs and Border Protection facility is located on Pensacola Aviation’s ramp, with customs agents available with 24 hours’ notice.

The FBO’s traffic reaches a peak in summer with vacationers drawn to the area’s beaches, and quiets down in the fall for a “much-needed break,” Adamson told AIN, before ramping up again for the holidays and the arrival of the snowbirds from the Northeast.

A $2 million resurfacing project on the nearly 10-acre ramp is currently underway, and the FBO’s owners are in negotiations with the city on a lease extension. That would trigger several additional improvements, including the erection of another 20,000-sq-ft hangar, the components of which are already onsite. Renovations are on tap for the terminal as well, with an expansion of the lobby outwards and upwards to facilitate the installation of a mezzanine observation deck overlooking the ramp, a new CSR counter, and more office space.