Wow, we really revived this thread. As a pilot needing a hangar and an airport manager working through a hangar wait list at a rural airport, I completely appreciate all the comments. Heres my 2 cents.
Governments are terrible at managing airports for many reasons. Usually it’s apathy or underfunding, but more times than not, its that governments are meant to provide services equitably to everyone. Airports must, by law, give priority to businesses that have the greatest economic impact. By contrast, the airport is required to charge everyone the same amount for equal space. Real Airport managers are bound by a lot more rules than you think. We must act as an enterprise fund and be separated from all other city funds( that makes the cities mad).
Every airport manager wants to build hangars right now. We know there is a shortage. We also know that there is a record number of pilots being trained that will want their own airplane and need a hangar in the next few years. Construction costs have increased so much that our breakeven point, with current rental rates, was 52 years. A 52 year losing streak is a very hard thing to sell when you are trying to find the 10% matching funding for a runway rehab. There are basicly no hangars available anywhere. Airports really struggle to keep the cost of general aviation as inexpensive as possible but there is only one solution to this.
All airport managers hate hangar wait lists for the exact same reason….because everyone needing a hangar is on 25 wait lists and it wastes a massive amount of our time. It’s not as easy as you think. Almost every current tenant has a request to be in a different building, so you have to make them the offer and wait 24 hours then move down the list calling and waiting for people who may not even have an airplane or a license. Then as soon as somebody moves, it seems like all the tenants try to figure out a way to be upset about it. I want everyone to have a hangar and I want to do it in a fair way. That’s why i have put 5 people in hangars while my own is tied down on the ramp while I wait for one.
All leases for land at airports in the grant program are required to be reversion leases. That means at the end of the term, the airport owns it. The FAA doesn’t want to spend millions on the runway then the airport sell the land around it. There is really only one solution, hangar rates have to go up to justify their construction.
A question for you guys….as an airport manager with an obligation to attempt to make a profit, do you allow an experimental with a rotax buying gas at the convenience store in the hangar or skip him for the Pawnee crop duster making a living and buying 10k gallons of fuel?
Or if a 48’ hangar came available and a rv12 was next on the list?
Under our current system, the hangar goes to the rotax.
Thanks for laying it out there, I am sure any government job comes with a lot of bureaucracy and compromises.
I'd just offer this quote from AOPA
[]The AOPA position on reversion clauses in leases is that although according to the Airport Compliance Manual (FAA Order 5190.6B)—which helps the FAA determine if airports are compliant with grant assurances—reversion is one acceptable way to terminate a lease, there are many approaches to terminating leases that offer alternatives more akin to a win-win situation while simultaneously ensuring that the airport continues to honor principles of self-sustainability.
Here's the link:
A candid reflection on FAA aircraft hangar leases and reversion policy
While the FAA offers extensive guidance for airport administration policy, particularly in terms of airport compliance, all too often there is much left to interpretation by both airport sponsors and airport users.
www.aopa.org
Cheers