LOS ANGELES, Calif.—-In an Oct. 28 webinar conference, tenants from Los Angeles County’s five General Aviation airports argued that a Denver, Colo.,-based consultant’s research methods are biased towards unnecessarily raising rents and fees.
Callers questioned the two top executives of the Airports Division of the Department of Public Works, as well as David Benner, rate analyst with Aviation Management Consulting Group, the company presenting the methodology used in a previous rents and fees study for the county.
Lightning rods for much of the discussion were graphics illustrating what the consultant said were comparative and competitive factors between categorically similar airports. The callers disagreed, saying the company was comparing apples to oranges.
Addressing a caller’s complaint about deteriorating physical conditions and neglected interior and grounds cleaning and maintenance at Compton/Woodley Airport, Airports Division Chief Paul Maselbas said he is “distressed” by shortcomings at airports since day-to-day operational management was “in-sourced” from longtime private sector operations contractor American Airports.
Since the change in management, the number of custodians and groundskeepers at Compton has been cut from 10 to two.
One bright point did emerge from an otherwise polite but contentious online video session. A Gen. William J. Fox Airfield hangar tenant suggested the High Desert airport free up hangars and increase revenue by providing shade canopies over tie-down lanes. Pilot Frank Macaelo, owner of a delicate wood and fabric tail dragger, said sun damage keeps his aircraft in an unaffordable hangar.
Maselbas instantly made the connection between overhead shading of airplanes and solar panels to drastically reduce what he called Fox Field’s outrageously high electricity bills. When a question of costs vs. savings came up, it was suggested that Lancaster’s 20 schools with solar-covered parking might have an answer.
Since the city of Lancaster installed the solar system, the 20 schools in the district reportedly save an average $200,000 a year in electricity, and benefit from nighttime security lighting.
Much of the controversy over the rates and fees study hinged on disagreement over the basis of comparison between airports, which airports have commonality with the five county airports, and whether the assumptions about competitive advantages are even realistic.
Webinar callers to the scheduled 90-minute session that went into a 20-minute overtime wondered why the county’s five small general aviation airports were ranked with large commercially dominant fields across the country, while nearby GA airports such as Flabob in Riverside and Cable Airport in Upland were omitted.
The answer was related to the way in which airports do or don’t derive their revenue, and the amenities offered. Specific examples cited by the consultant and the Aviation Division executives included Big Bear Airport, excluded because it is city-owned and financed through property tax, and Cable Airport, which is privately owned and doesn’t have a functioning control tower.
On the question of how Aviation Management Consulting Group, Inc., chooses to conduct a study, Benner wrote in a 2020 memo to Carley Shannon, director of sustainability for C&S Engineering, Inc., “It is AMCG’s recommendation that the County of Los Angeles establish general aviation fees utilizing a cost recovery-based approach or methodology, not a market-based approach.”
The AMCG website, states that an airport rent study is a streamlined approach to derive a market rent opinion. It goes on to say the rent and fee studies are among the airport’s Primary Management Compliance Documents (PMCDs) to derive a supported market based rental rate for each component of the properties.
The website states, “the approach and comparative analysis is consistent with the FAA’s policy which provides airports the flexibility to establish market rents for airport properties using any reasonable, justified, and consistently applied method.”
An airport fee study is intended to guide policy makers and airport management in using industry best practices for types of fees that could be charged, the methods to establish fees, and the unit measure for charging such fees, “to fulfill the airport sponsor’s FAA airport sponsor assurance obligation to “make the airport as self-sustaining as possible under the circumstances” existing at the airport. Airport fees are used to recover the operating expenses and non-operating uses of funds (e.g., capital expenses) relating to the planning, development, operation, and management of the airport.
Taken together, the PMCDs are supposed to: (1) contribute towards the airport’s financial health; (2) foster orderly development of land and improvements; (3) promote the provision of quality aviation products, services, and facilities; (4) protect the health, safety, interest, and general welfare of the public; (5) reduce the potential for conflict; and (6) provide a platform for resolution of complaints.
Online searches of official data sources on Fox Field in Lancaster reveal wide discrepancies between information reportedly current in L.A. County Department of Airports postings, and 2022 numbers shown from the Federal Aviation Administration.
For instance, FAA information effective Oct. 6, 2022, shows 60 aircraft based at Fox Field, 56 being single engine. The FAA reports average daily aircraft operations at Fox at 132 for the 12-month period ending Dec. 31, 2021. That would total about 48,200 takeoffs and landings for that year, with 52 percent being local general aviation, 45 percent transient general aviation, 3 percent military and 1 percent air taxi. The Fox Field page on the county website reports 58,000 for the unspecified year.
