FBOs: Touching Bases compiled by Mark Phelps

PAST ISSUES FBO: TOUCHING BASES 2002
PAST ISSUES FBO: TOUCHING BASES 2001

SANTA MONICA ACCESS RESTRICTIONS PROPOSED
The Santa Monica (Calif.) Municipal Airport Commission has proposed an “aircraft conformance program” (ACP) that would effectively ban certain larger business jets at the Southern California field within six months, according to NBAA. The commission has recommended displacing the threshold by 300 ft at both ends of the airport’s nearly 5,000-ft runway and allowing only aircraft having wingspans of less than 79 ft and approach speeds of lower than 121 kt (approach category A or B only) to use the field. Violators could be fined up to $10,000 and arrested. NBAA and the FAA have urged the Santa Monica City Council not to adopt the ACP for two major reasons. The B-II Airport Reference Code upon which the ban is based is an airport design criterion and is not intended to limit operations. Also, the ban would allegedly violate federal law and a 1984 agreement between the city and aviation interests.

FLYING INTO MEXICO CITY WON’T GET EASIER SOON
Efforts to relieve congestion at Mexico City Benito Juarez International Airport were dealt a blow last month when the Mexican government abandoned plans to build a new international airport at Texcoco. The project, which was approved just last October, was scrapped following violent protests by local farmers. Pedro Cerisola, Mexico’s secretary of communications and transport, said the government would explore several alternatives, from expansion of the current airport to building a new airfield at other sites more distant from the capital. Current traffic projections indicate that Juarez International could become saturated within eight years.

TEXAS GRANTED $500K FOR NEW Genav AIRPORT
Central Texas, near the capital city of Austin, may yet get the general aviation airport it has so desperately needed for the past several years. When Austin (Texas) Mueller Airport gave way to the new Austin Bergstrom International Airport in April 1999, general aviation was not granted nearly the same footprint it had enjoyed at the old, now-closed field. To boot, GA reliever Austin Executive Airport, just north of town, was hemmed in by a new road built to serve computer manufacturing facilities that have progressively sprouted around the region, covering huge tracts of previously sparse land. Within months of the road being built, the owners of Austin Executive Airport said that, without a promised ILS (precluded by the road), the airport was not viable enough to justify the investment. They sold the land to developers and the airport closed.
Then last month, the FAA granted half a million dollars to the Texas Department of Transportation to put toward a new GA airport in the Austin area. According to the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association, which helped secure the funding from the federal Airport Improvement Program coffers, there are seven proposals being evaluated by the state. A definitive plan for the new airport could take up to two years to develop.

KAISERAIR BATTENS DOWN SECURITY HATCHES
On the subject of security procedures, Sandy Waters, v-p of KaiserAir at Oakland (Calif.) International Airport, said, “There has never been a successful hijacking of a charter or air taxi aircraft in history, and there is no reason to impose the same requirements [as those for aircraft over 95,000 lb] on smaller aircraft.” Still, Waters has voluntarily developed scrupulous security measures specifically for KaiserAir–measures the company hopes will serve as a model for federal regulations for FBOs and the charter industry. Founded in 1946 by industrialist Henry Kaiser, KaiserAir is a full-service aircraft management company and FBO specializing in operation and maintenance of Gulfstream, Raytheon Hawker and Cessna business aircraft.

Employees are now subject to pre-hire fingerprint checks and thorough background investigations. Flight crews, line personnel and maintenance technicians are subject to random drug and alcohol tests. Before every flight on a KaiserAir charter aircraft, each passenger and his baggage is identified and verified. Boarding is conducted at the private terminal only. The area is secured by a 12-ft-high fence with security guards protecting private gates. Since September 11, KaiserAir requires flight crews and passengers to check in at the customer service counter so that staff members can escort them to and from their aircraft on the ramp. Flight crewmembers are also required to identify all of their passengers and verify the owner of each piece of baggage before the airplane is loaded.

CHEVRONTEXACO EXPANDS NORTHEASTWARD
ChevronTexaco expanded its reach when its general aviation division announced that the Hiller Group, a major distributor of ChevronTexaco aviation products, would expand its marketing territory. Based in Tampa, Fla., Hiller already supported more than 140 Chevron-branded FBOs in the South and Southeast. The expansion move targets midatlantic and northeastern locations, where the Chevron brand of aviation fuel and services is less recognized.
ChevronTexaco General Aviation is a division of ChevronTexaco Global Aviation, which supplies fuel and service to more than 200 commercial airlines at as many as 350 airports in 80 countries. In the U.S., ChevronTexaco supports some 600 FBOs nationwide.

PRIVATESKY’S HURRICANE-PROOF MEGAHANGAR
That may jinx it, but the new maintenance service center hangar for PrivateSky at Fort Myers (Fla.) Airport (RSW) is being built to withstand a class 5 hurricane. The only one so built, the new climate-controlled hangar will be able to accommodate up to a dozen Gulfstream-size aircraft at PrivateSky’s FAR Part 145 repair station. An overhead crane will be installed for removing engines. PrivateSky chairman Vincent Wolanin (in photo) also decided to add a tail slot door so Boeing Business Jets could also be sheltered at his facility. The hangar will triple the FBO’s current floor area under roof, with an associated customer service center also under construction. PrivateSky has more than one million square feet of ramp area, according to Wolanin. Construction work is being performed by New York-based Bethlehem Construction, another Wolanin company. The new building is scheduled to come on line in November, and a grand opening celebration–to benefit the Children’s Hospital in Fort Myers–is scheduled for December 7.