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FBO's w/o competition

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Herculeus

Well-known member
Joined
Apr 8, 2005
Posts
75
I was wondering if you could list fbo's that don't have any competitors. Also has anybody every owned there own, is it profitable? Have a friend who is willing to help me out. Thanks
 
If you're talking about starting an FBO to compete with an established business, I think you'll find in many cases the established business has considerable clout with the City Council and/or County Commission, making things very difficult for the start-up. Try getting a reasonable lease, establishing a fuel depot, getting the building permits. etc. etc. etc.



Just my experience.
 
At Palwaukee Priester used to be the only FBO on the field, the Priester family owned the entire airport. Then they sold the airport in 1988 to the villages of Prospect Heights and Wheeling. Priester stayed the only FBO until 1996(if you know how busy Palwaukee is you would understand what a great business this would be for the priester family). Then in 1996 North American Jet started up and undercut anything that Priester did price wise, 2001 Priester sold to Signature Flight Support.

It is possible to dig up business, you just have to be willing to operate at a significant loss the first few years so that you can draw business away from the already establised FBO, then once you get some good customers you can slowly raise your prices.

North American Jet at Palwaukee had no problem with the city council because a few years before the company went in Ken Ross the owner began to have his friends run and win board seats in both Prospect Heights and Wheeling. And he was able to knock out a family business out that had been there for 60 years in the matter of only 5 years.
 
Prior Aviation BUF has no competition and it's a shame because they're very expensive for a little city like Buffalo. They wound up buying out all the competition on the field.
 
icefr8dawg said:
Prior Aviation BUF has no competition and it's a shame because they're very expensive for a little city like Buffalo. They wound up buying out all the competition on the field.

very true thats where i started flying then moved to the buffalo airfield about 6 years ago. i hear the fbo there is out of business.


christiansen aviation at RVS has pretty much a monopoly there. there is one other place there but i would say 98% of the traffic goes through christiansen
 
Vector4fun said:
...the established business has considerable clout with the City Council and/or County Commission, making things very difficult for the start-up...

Are you referring to the current situation @ RVS by chance?
 
Thanks for the help keep it comming. I know that there was a post like this in the corporate board but I couldn't find it.
 
Jim's Air in San Diego (KSAN), outrageously expensive fuel and absolutely crappy service...

Signature Boston Logan (KBOS), outrageously expensive fuel and absolutely crappy service...
 

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