FBO Operations

Overview

Proper FBO management can be time consuming but rewarding. Making a profit on just FBO transactions is almost impossible but FBOs should only be viewed as a portion of a business. Combining flight revenue with FBO management may yield a more enjoyable career simulation than just being a pilot or just being an FBO operator.

Generally, a single operator can financially manage two FBOs with just one assignment per week. Each individual's commitment to flight simulation is different, however, so be careful to not over-extend yourself. If you want to be a huge FBO company in FSE, then it is usually best to have a huge number of pilots working for the same cause!

(Image: Ballicus)

Keeping an FBO Running

FBO Operating Cost

One of the most important factors in determining whether to operate an FBO or not is to understand the costs involved. FBOs can only remain open if they are properly stocked with "Supplies".

In FSE, supplies are generic in nature and represent everything from your lease payment to your employee payroll. FBOs will consume a certain amount of supplies each day, and will cease operating if they run out! Repair facilities will not be available, fuel won't sell, and passenger terminals will go idle until the FBO is resupplied.

Wait too long and an FBO without supplies will be foreclosed by the Airport Authority and the lease rights will be raffled off to other FSE Players!

The Relationship Between Airport Size, FBO Size, and Supply Costs

Determining FBO operational costs is fairly straightforward and very important to understanding if you can afford to operate a FBO. The following information provides the basic data needed to calculate how much an FBO will cost to run. The important concept to understand is that each lot occupied by an FBO requires a given amount of supplies per day.

Airstrip

These airports charge 10kg of supplies per day.

Small Airport

These airports charge 20kg of supplies, per lot, per day.

Large Airport

These airports charge 30kg of supplies, per lot, per day.

(Seaplane and Military bases of equivalent size are priced according to the same formulas.)

Obtaining Supplies

Supplies can be purchased at any time from the bottom of the airport page, at the airport where your FBO is located. Click "Buy" in the action column. If your FBO is operated by a Group, ensure you buy those supplies "for the group", and not for your own account.

Inactive FBOs

If you fail to keep the FBO building stocked with supplies, the business will go 'inactive' and will close. At this point, business stops (you cannot sell fuel or commodities, you will receive no ground crew fees, passenger terminals will cease functioning).

During the time the FBO is inactive, the system will calculate the amount of "backordered" or "negative" supplies on a daily basis. To re open the FBO, you must provide enough supplies to go from a "negative supplies" situation to a "positive supplies" situation. If you fail to reactive an inactive FBO for 45 days, FSE will automatically revoke your lease rights to the airport lot(s).

Foreclosure results in the elimination of the FBO building. You do not receive any portion of the materials from the teardown, nor do you receive any financial compensation for the loss of materials.

If you anticipate being away from FSE for a length of time which may put any FBO(s) you are operating in jeopardy of running out of supplies, it is highly advisable that you hire a caretaker to ensure the FBO(s) remain operational.

Services and Features of FBOs

Passenger Terminal Operations

Passenger Terminals are a key and important reason for wanting to operate an FBO. Passenger Terminals (PTs) allow the FBO operator to define the location of where charter passengers may wish to fly, allowing the user to better tailor their flight experience to their interests.

Due to the complexities of PTs, a separate manual section has been devoted to operating them. Please see the Passenger Terminal section for more information.

Ground Crew Fee Income

As the operator of an FBO, you provide ground crew services to aid passengers, luggage and cargo loading/unloading. FSE will automatically manage compensation by submitting a percentage of the assignment revenue to your company. The actual percentage you receive is based on how many FBOs are being operated at both the departure and arrival airports, as described below. Five percent (5%) of the assignment's payout will be distributed evenly to each FBO at the departure airport, and another five percent (5%) will be distributed evenly to each FBO at the arrival airport. Let's look at this example...

A pilot loads up his/her Beech 1900 at Los Angelas (KLAX) with 10 passengers and 200 Kg of cargo. All assignments together add up to a total of $10,000 in payouts. All ten passengers and cargo are heading to San Francisco (KSFO) as the final destination. Each airport has one player-operated FBO. At the end of this flight, the FBO operator at LAX and the FBO operator at SFO were automatically paid $500 each (5% of the base revenue to each location). HOWEVER... if LAX had two player-operated FBOs, the $500 fee going to LAX is split evenly so that each FBO operator receives $250. If there were three FBOs, the $500 would be split three ways.

In contrast, if San Francisco had no player-operated FBOs, the pilot would only pay 5% to LAX and that would be evenly shared between all active FBOs.

There's more... If you (as the pilot) operate the destination or departure FBO (or are a part of a group operating that FBO and are flying an assignment for that group), you will not share the ground crew fees with other FBOs on site, if any.

All these transactions will appear in the FBO operator's payment log.

Repair Shop

If you have chosen to build a repair shop at the FBO, you can offer maintenance and avionics upgrade services to your fellow pilots.

Under the current FBO Structure, the FBO cannot employ mechanics. If you get a customer requiring aircraft maintenance services, the FBO will contract with a local mechanic or avionics technician. This contractor will bill you, the FBO operator, for his services which include labor and any parts that were needed. As the operator of the repair station, you can optionally charge the aircraft owner a "mark-up fee", set as a percentage of the contractor's fee. Be careful with your mark-up charges: set this too high, and pilots may choose to patronize another shop; Set this too low, and you could be missing out on potential revenue!

From a billing and payment perspective, the aircraft owner will pay you the entire sum including the mechanic's fee and your mark-up fee. You will then pay the mechanic his or her fee directly, which will be listed in your payment logs as paid "to FS Economy".

To set your mark-up fee, go to the FBO page and select EDIT for the desired FBO. If a repair station has been built, you will see two options to set mark-ups. The first option (Repair Shop) is for aircraft maintenance such as 100-hour inspection or engine replacement. The second option is for avionics installs and removals. Set each item to a whole number between 0 and 100, which will represent the percentage of the mechanic's fee.

Note: Aircraft which require maintenance due to "random maintenance" do not require a contract mechanic. The fee for these repairs are paid directly to the FBO operator. Therefore, there is no "mark up" percentage setting for these repair services provided by the FBO.

~~Repair Shop Maintenance Invoice Template~~

(no longer available)

When a 100-hour maintenance is performed at the FBO's repair shop, an invoice containing the cost and results will be generated for the aircraft owner. As the repairshop operator, you can use the supplied generic invoice template or create your own. If you wish to make a custom invoice, simply download the default template and edit using your favorite graphics program. JPEG files are accepted.

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