The Big Dark Secret of FBOs
Years ago, FBOs would practically give away hangar space, if only to secure regular fuel sales. No longer. As fuel margins remain under greater and greater pressure, affected by both geopolitical events and supply disruption, savvy FBOs have correctly pivoted to managing their second largest revenue stream: Hangar Rent. Unfortunately, even the most sophisticated FBOs find that managing the legal agreements associated with based tenants is painfully unsophisticated. While concepts adopted years ago by commercial real estate companies- per square foot rates and charges, common area maintenance (CAMs) fees, annual consumer price index adjustments- are now commonplace among professionally managed FBOs, what isn’t commonplace is the management of those highly valuable hangar, office and parking agreements.
Your FBO is not alone. The Big Dark Secret of aviation property management is that most FBOs actually manage their customer leases through nothing more than a Rent Roll spreadsheet, and a DropBox, if that. That means annual increases are missed, rents stay stagnant, lease documents no longer reflect the current tenant relationship, fall into month-to-month status, or worse. And that certificate of additionally insured status you we’re supposed to get? There is never a good time to find out your tenant is month-to-month and you no longer have a current insurance certificate for them.
How did we get here as an industry? Simply put: No property management software specifically built for FBOs ever existed, until now.
Introducing HangarIT™
Purpose-built from the ground up by the experts at FBO Partners, HangarIT™ is a cloud-based property management platform for FBOs, Airports, and other owners and property managers of aircraft hangars. Both trademarked and US Patent Pending, HangarIT™ is your three-step solution for professional aviation property management.
What does HangarIT™ do?
HangarIT™ is first a dynamic, central repository for FBO and airport property management. For the first time, all of your airport ground leases, customer subleases, insurance certificates, and critical dates and rates, are all kept in one place. Imagine not having to ask the Accounting Department for a copy of a lease, instead, find your tenant’s agreement, instantly. Imagine getting an automatic reminder to re-new a lease or increase a price. Imagine knowing exactly, to the square foot, how “full” your hangars really are- and your average per square foot rate. Imagine not leaving money on the table, ever again.
Second, HangarIT™ provides real time occupancy of your hangars. How might you ask? HangarIT automatically generates QR codes on demand for all of your leasable space. Place the QR code on the hangar door, scan it with any Smartphone, and just type in the tail number of the aircraft you’re moving in or out in the app. HangarIT automatically geolocates the hangar, automatically identifies the aircraft as a tenant or a transient, and time stamps the movement. The square footage of the aircraft is also automatically calculated to drive occupancy percentages. And, with our third-party data integration, you can be sure the right tail number is found, and the right aircraft type is identified, every time.
Third, and coming soon, is HangarIT™ Marketplace. That extra space you have in your hangar this week? Imagine being able to “push” that availability directly to transient aircraft operators as available, rentable, overnight hangar space via an app. Aircraft operators can select the space on the HangarIT™ app, and reserve and pay for overnight hangar right then and there! Hello revenue, goodbye waitlists.