Pick Your Business Location

We all know how important it is to have a great location for a successful business. Potential customers need to be able to find it and existing customers will want a place they like to visit. But what makes starting a flight school different is that fact that it’s located at an airport.  

Business and other organizations located at a federally funded airport fall under the guidance of FAA Order 5190.6. ( See Link Here ) As a result, most airport managers and boards have established a set of Minimum Standards (See Link Here )  to guide the operations of businesses and other entities on field. It is designed to help airport management carry out the FAA’s directive of preventing “economic discrimination” of any party interested in operating at the airport. In other words, they are striving to maintain a level playing field for all parties involved. Please note that unlike most of our aviation activities that are overseen by the local Flight Standards District Office (FSDO), airports are under the local Airport District Office (ADO) which is where you can seek guidance or address issues for airport related matters.
ADO LINK: ( https://www.faa.gov/about/office_org/headquarters_offices/arp/offices/regional_offices )  

Typical requirements for that you may see in the minimum standards at your airport are things like: 

• Minimum Liability Insurance coverage (many schools report a minimum of $1 million coverage)
• Providing a restroom for customers
• A minimum amount of office space
• Providing staffing to monitor airport operations at specified times

As you can imagine, it’s quite important to research the minimum standards before you try to establish your new school at the airport since they will determine what will be required of you to get started. 

If you find that minimum standards at your airport don’t quite fit or would prevent you from performing a certain activity that would be key to your business idea, you can seek to amend them with the assistance of the airport management. Be sure to be thorough in your preparation by listing all the activities you will want to do so that you won’t have to renegotiate later after completing the approval process. You might consider offering to assist airport management with some of their routine duties (e.g., snow removal, gate monitoring, etc.) if it would help in getting support for your proposals during the negotiation process.  

Here are a few examples of negotiating points:

• Does the airport need staffing that you could take over and thereby save the airport some money?
• See if you can make a deal on the airport rental rates since the airport will be getting income from you being there.
• Consider doing a 1-year lease with a renewable option if that could get you a better rate.
• Once you have a signed contract, you will be an approved Commercial Operator at your airport!

The SBA’s Guide to Picking a Business Location: https://www.sba.gov/business-guide/launch-your-business/pick-your-business-location



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