Public Smackdown: AOPA, EAA, Others Call Out FBOs

It's no secret that most FBOs at larger, urban or urban-adjacent airports charge a lot for fuel and tiedown, among other services, such as just dropping off a passenger. To make matters worse, often pilots find out about the fees and their associated costs only after they have arrived on the ramp, by which time, depending on what kind of plane you're operating, they might have amassed hundreds or even thousands of dollars in fees.

Despite this state of affairs, pilots have always assumed that, like turbulence or icing, there was nothing they could do about such opaque and seemingly unnecessary fees except either stop flying or find someplace else to refuel. To make matters worse, FBOs make finding out about their pricing difficult if not impossible.

But pilots got glimmers of hope last year when AOPA launched a campaign to work with airport owners (typically cities or counties) to get FBOs to stop monopolizing the business at these airports. And earlier this week they took it a step further, when it, along with EAA, GAMA, NATA and NBAA sent an open letter to FBOs with a list of recommended best practices.

The open letter was hard for many to decipher without a careful read, an attempt most likely by organizations to not completely alienate FBOs, whose advertising, donations and partnerships are valued by the very member organizations who signed the letter.

The list of best communications practices is only four items long. These are:

Provide a description of available services and a listing of fuel prices, fees and charges
Make these charges and fees accessible online in a user-friendly manner so pilots can make an informed decision,
Invite customers to contact the FBO, and solicit such feedback.
Finally, the groups urged FBOs to "move expeditiously to implement these practices."

Click here to read the full document.

It remains to be seen if FBOs will respond to the suggested best practices, or if they will at all, but AOPA and other member organizations are turning up the heat on current problematic practices.

Plane & PilotStaff