Saturday was move-in day.
“We get the keys at 12:01 a.m.,” said William “Bill” Borgsmiller, founder and chief executive of fixed-base operator ACI Jet in San Luis Obispo, speaking last week.
ACI Jet was scheduled to take over operations starting April 1 of one of John Wayne Airport’s two full-service facilities for charter carriers and private-aircraft owners.
The company’s recently awarded contract runs through the end of next year, when an airport master plan covering general aviation—operations that include the FBOs—is scheduled to be completed and contracts go out to bid again.
ACI Jet will until then pay $2.94 million a year to lease 155,000 square feet at the airport, including hangars.
It won the contract this year following two votes—an original nod in January and a “do-over” a month later—by the Orange County Board of Supervisors.
The second vote came after Signature Flight Support, based in Orlando and part of publicly traded BBA Aviation PLC in London, which had run the FBO for 18 years, alleged improprieties in the first tally.
The contract for the other FBO was awarded to Plano, Texas-based Atlantic Aviation, which previously had the account.
Aviators
Last year John Wayne Airport had roughly 142,000 flights of all kinds.
Two-thirds of those were general aviation, which includes charters and private planes.
Commercial flights—such as those by JWA’s busiest carrier by passenger count, Southwest Airlines—accounted for most of the rest, while military, cargo and commuter trips comprised the final sliver.
General aviation’s 2-to-1 edge in flight volume isn’t reflected in airport revenue—it produced just 4% of JWA’s 2015-16 take of about $129 million.
Most of that roughly $5 million in revenue comes from charter carriers and private plane owners that pay for space at the airport, from an outdoor “tie-down”—similar to a boat slip in a harbor—to a full-fledged FBO facility like the one ACI Jet will rent.
It costs between $5 and $850 per night to rent space for a single plane or jet at the airport, depending on aircraft size, length of stay or lease, and location of parking.
General aviation services are used to accommodate high-dollar, low-profile executive and celebrity travel—charter flights—as well the local cadre of private plane owners at JWA.
The airport is home to 500 general aviation aircraft and about a dozen charter carriers. Its OC-based charter fliers—West Coast Aviation Services LLC, STAJets Inc., and JetSuite Inc.—over the last few years have added to their fleets and flights, and reported generally booming business.
Dogfight
The three charter firms declined a Business Journal request for comment on this story; STAJets is directly affected by the changeover because it flies out of the FBO formerly run by Signature and now under ACI Jet. The other two are at Atlantic Aviation’s FBO.
Eight companies responded to the airport’s request for qualifications for the FBO contract issued in September.
The list included Executive Aviation Group LLC in Santa Ana, an affiliate of real estate developer Mike Harrah’s Caribou Industries Inc.; Ross Aviation Operations LLC, which in November bought a fixed-base operation at Long Beach Airport; and a New Jersey-based unit of General Dynamics called Jet Aviation Holdings USA Inc. (see box).
An airport staff report recommended that the incumbents, Signature and Atlantic, retain their slots; ACI Jet ranked fifth. Supervisors chose Atlantic and added the new operator, ACI, heeding calls by some FBO users, news reports said, for changes in fuel pricing and other areas.
Signature contested the outcome. It filed a formal complaint with the Federal Aviation Administration on March 7 and last week petitioned Orange County Superior Court to block the changeover, two actions that are pending.
“We steadfastly stand by our position that this was a flawed process [and] the airport’s customers and constituents are not well-served by [it],” Geoff Heck, Signature senior vice president, sales and marketing, said in an email.
Supervisors denied improprieties and defended their decision in an emailed statement: “The Board has the right and responsibility to make the selection … that best meets the needs” of county residents.
The airport for its part “has worked closely with both Signature and ACI Jet to ensure a safe and cooperative transition on April 1,” Eric Freed, deputy director for public affairs, said in an email.
Flight Plan
Atlantic kept its 83,000-square-foot facility in the southeast corner of the airport that it leases for $1.5 million a year.
ACI Jet got Signature’s space: a hangar, fuel storage and office on the east side of JWA and hangars on the west side, across from the runways and main commercial aviation terminals.
Borgsmiller said ACI Jet is ready for take off.
ACI pledged $500,000 in FBO capital improvements and community charitable giving as part of its proposal; about 20% of that will go to the former; the latter involves events that “make aviation more accessible,” Borgsmiller said.
“We’re trying to do everything in Orange County that we do in our other locations.”
ACI runs FBOs at airports in San Luis Obispo and Paso Robles and offers some services at one near Pismo Beach.
It also flies its own charter service, including out of JWA—which has caused concern by other charter carriers that they’d be paying for FBO services from a direct competitor.
Its annual sales top $35 million and industry sources said the John Wayne FBO would add $15 million to that.
About $9 million of its current take is from charter; flights that originate from JWA account for $500,000 of it.
Borgsmiller said ACI has charter carriers and maintenance companies as tenants in San Luis Obispo—beside its own charter and service work—and that “aviation is too small a community not to behave cooperatively.”
ACI parent Aviation Consultants Inc. is majority-owned by Borgsmiller; minority stakes are held by Executive Vice President Olivier Leclercq and about 150 company employees, including about 40 it’s adding in OC.
Vice President Andrew Robillard oversees all of its FBOs; Joe Daichendt is interim GM at the JWA facility.
Borgsmiller said ACI pairs the scope of a big operator with the service ethos of a small one—an ACI mechanic on vacation once drove three hours to an airport to fix a client’s plane, he said.
“Nobody will ever be without the service they need.”
