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58 airportbusiness May 2017 FBO MANAGEMENT destination, close to major airport – a mere 2.1 nm from Palm Beach International (PBI)- and visited said retreat so frequently back-to-back, during the peak tourism season. At a certain point, the word "Temporary" in the acronym TFR loses its meaning. So, what can an FBO do during a TFR? What recourse is there for lost revenue- and by exten- sion- lost jobs? The answer for now, is very little. That doesn't mean FBOs or airports should go quietly into the night. It is up to the industry collectively to band together, make noise, and to petition to local, state and federal government agencies to seek relief – or at least hear their pleas. Several industry groups, both national and local are fighting the good fight, though most efforts are directed to the benefit of aircraft oper- ators under the larger umbrella of "airport access issues" as opposed to fighting for FBOs per se. Chris Salley, board vice president of the South Florida Business Aviation Association (SFBAA) and sales and marketing manager for Ft. Lauderdale-based National Jets notes the SFBAA has teamed up with the Florida Airports Council, the Aircraft Owners & Pilots Association (AOPA), the Florida Aviation Business Association (FABA) and other "alphabet groups" to form a general aviation caucus to speak as a unified voice regarding the issue of TFRs. Working with the state legislature, Salley notes the caucus has been making efforts to "promote awareness of the effects the TFR." To be sure, while the TFR itself is an overarching problem for operators and airport tenants such as FBOs, "specific aspects of the TFR are particularly troubling" adds Salley. These include the short notice nature of them and complete shutdown of nearby Palm Beach County Park Airport (LNA), commonly referred to as Lantana Airport, among others. The current Presidential TFRs that affect Palm Beach International require non-airline operators [Read: General and Business Aviation] to arrive to PBI via five select gateway airports, after being screened of course. For those GA flights departing PBI, security screening is also required. These rules create a domino effect of sorts: Aircraft operators, restricted in their use of the desired airport of their destination, tend to go elsewhere. Based tenants of FBOs also reposition their aircraft to outlying airports resulting in still fewer fuel sales at the affected airport. Airports are not immune either from the negative effects of a TFR, as fewer gallons sold by an FBO result in lower flowage fee revenue for the airport. This begs consideration by airports as to their role when TFRs affect them and their tenants. While airports can't make TFRs go away, airports are wise to band together with their tenants, air- craft operators and industry alphabet groups to educate those with the power to alter or amend some of the more draconian aspects of TFRs. In the most basic sense TFRs severely restrict an airport tenant's ability to fulfill its leasehold obligations- to make the rent. An airport disen- gaged from the plight of its tenants might find those same tenants, aircraft operators and indus- try alphabet groups instead banding together to petition the airport for rent abatement or concessions. Like elections themselves, there are win- ners and losers with TFRs. Those in the winner column with the PBI TFRs include nearby Boca Raton (BCT) to the south and Stuart (SUA) to the north, which become the closest towered airports with sufficient infrastructure to handle business jet aircraft outside the 10nm ring. In the loser column of the TFR outcome is Lantana Airport, which is effectively closed entirely during the TFR. With a high tempo of flight taining activity, this airport has some 250 based aircraft, and averages no less than 100,000 flight operations a year according to the FAA statistics. And it is closed to all flight operations when the President is in town- some eight weekends so far Cryptically, the National Business Aviation Association, also in the trenches of the TFR bat- tle recently noted on its website that "options to allow limited operations are being reviewed" for the frequently-shuttered Lantana Airport. That such hope exists at all is because of the tireless work of airports, FBOs and industry groups banding together to appeal to lawmak- ers to consider a more common-sense approach to TFRs. Douglas Wilson is the president and founder of FBO Partners LLC, an aviaƟon consultancy providing business management advisory services to Fixed Base OperaƟons (FBOs). Wilson can be reached at douglas. wilson@ĩopartners.com. 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