How FBOs Can Craft Advantageous Hangar Agreements
/Your Hangar Sits on Golden Ground
Part One of the Four-Part Crafting Advantageous Hangar, Office and Tie-Down Agreements Series
By John L. Enticknap and Ron R. Jackson, Principals, Aviation Business Strategies Group
In our previous blog, we concluded our four-part series on the 10 essential elements of a favorable fuel supplier agreement, which is the second component of the six intangibles that can build equity in your FBO.
In this blog post, we begin a new series about the third component, crafting advantageous hangar, office and tie-down agreements. Let’s start with the hangar agreement.
Hangars are among the most important real estate investments from which an FBO can generate true passive rental income. Therefore, the hangar footprint is golden ground to the FBO enterprise.
Too often, FBOs devalue the true worth of a hangar agreement. In the process of trying to please a current or potential base tenant, FBO owners and managers will provide a deep discount on hangar rent based on fuel sales potential. That’s why it’s important that the details of potential fuel sales be spelled out in the hangar agreement with specific language based on measurable fuel sales milestones.
Hangar lease agreements are a sublease and must conform to the master lease agreement your FBO has with the airport authority. Signatories to hangar subleases do have a right to know the contents of your master lease because they must also comply with its contents. In addition, terms for rate increases in your subleases should be similar to the master lease, and the term of subleases cannot be longer than the master lease term.
FBOs should have a more detailed agreement for the lease of an entire hangar complex to an individual or flight department, especially if the agreement is for a multiple-year term. Just as you have a written agreement with your airport authority, all prospective tenants should have written agreements for space within your FBO. In addition, FBOs should develop a rules and regulations document that spells out the dos and don’ts of tenants. Our final blog in this series will detail the rules and regulations section.
As part of your evaluation to determine rates and charges, it is imperative that FBOs determine the true cost of your real estate, including your hangars. Costs of the underlying land lease, construction or rent, maintenance, taxes, and utilities are all part the calculation. All these costs should be detailed and broken down on a per-square-foot basis.
FBO owners and managers should conduct a market study of comparable local and regional rental rates to determine the final rental cost to offer to the tenant. As mentioned, we recommend leasing your hangars for a profit and not subsidizing the lease cost based on potential future fuel sales. Instead, commit your lessee in writing to specific fuel uplift targets at an established price. Then detail an alternate pricing method that would go into effect if the targets are not met.
Please keep in mind that there are many factors and nuances to crafting an advantageous hangar lease, and we will not be able to expound on all of them in the framework of a blog. Therefore, we encourage you to attend one of our FBO Success Seminars where we spend additional time discussing these important topics as well as others.
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About the bloggers:
John Enticknap has more than 35 years of aviation fueling and FBO services industry experience. Ron Jackson is co-founder of Aviation Business Strategies Group and president of The Jackson Group, a PR agency specializing in FBO marketing and customer service training. Visit the biography page or absggroup.com for more background.