Anyone here involved in running an airport?

4

4RNB

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4RNB
In addition to perusing ads for airplanes, I dream of having an airport home or building an airpark. Recently came across a privately owned public use airport for sale. https://www.trade-a-plane.com/searc...ylvania&listing_id=2426876&s-type=real_estate

How do privately owned public use airports make money?
How could one judge the profitability of purchasing such a business?
What is overhead?
Insurance?
FAA requirements?
How tough to run? What is the learning curve?

I think I saw 60 aircraft on the field. Assuming $100/month each minimum=$6,000
Maybe some larger spaces rented to businesses for an extra 3K per month?

Pros and cons of ownership?

I think it would be better to rent or be an owner of a home, but not out of the question to buy an ongoing enterprise.
 
I am an airport manager. There’s a lot to unpack here and I’d be happy to share some insight. Might be better over a phone call. PM me and I’ll give you my contact if you’d like.
 
RyanB said:
I am an airport manager. There’s a lot to unpack here and I’d be happy to share some insight. Might be better over a phone call. PM me and I’ll give you my contact.
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I sent my number
 
I'm curious to why the liability insurance cost is for an operation like that. They have a nice web site and restaurant. Seems like a nice opportunity.
 
Salty said:
The guy that bought our air park thought it would be a cash cow. He was anything but correct.
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A lot of folks have that impression, but they learn rather quickly.
 
A place like this you do for the love of being on an airport. No way anyone is gonna make a lot money with this. Someone can buy it and start jacking up the fees, but that will chase people away.
 
Like any business, an airport is a long term investment. It may not make money hand over fist on a daily basis, but there can be money made on the sale of a successful business.
 
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An air park is not an investment IMO. Unless you're going to build 10,000 apartments on it's remains.
 
I'd like to publicly thank @RyanB for talking to me for a while a few days ago, very open, neat to learn.
Thanks.
 
4RNB said:
In addition to perusing ads for airplanes, I dream of having an airport home or building an airpark. Recently came across a privately owned public use airport for sale. https://www.trade-a-plane.com/searc...ylvania&listing_id=2426876&s-type=real_estate

How do privately owned public use airports make money?
How could one judge the profitability of purchasing such a business?
What is overhead?
Insurance?
FAA requirements?
How tough to run? What is the learning curve?

I think I saw 60 aircraft on the field. Assuming $100/month each minimum=$6,000
Maybe some larger spaces rented to businesses for an extra 3K per month?

Pros and cons of ownership?

I think it would be better to rent or be an owner of a home, but not out of the question to buy an ongoing enterprise.
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This airport is close to Lake Wallenpaupack and is in the Pocono Mts... both are destinations for all seasons.. There may be an opportunity here if you can get hooked into the local resorts/hotels and make the airport a GA destination.

One thing I can say... it that Wilkes-Barre Scranton area is going through a gentrification pulling people from the NYC metro area, and Philadelphia..





 
I am on the board of a residential airport and nominally (though I don't officially have the title) am the airport manager (I'm the one who gets the phone calls).

I have a good friend who bought and is developing the Swan Creek (78A) airport here and can probably twist his arm into talking to your (won't take much).
 
Racerx said:
It appears my home drome is under contract. Rumor has it a group had been waffling about keeping it an airport but couldn't figure out how to make the money work. Not sure if they're the ones under contract. @kaiser you didn't win the lottery and buy it did you?

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I did not buy it. I needed 8,000 PoAers to commit to 1k each to turn it into PoA International Airport, alas I didn’t get enough commitments.

The way to make the money work is to turn it into a fly-in community… build houses around it with access to taxiways. You should see the premium associated with hangar homes at places like LL10 or LL22!
 
kaiser said:
I did not buy it. I needed 8,000 PoAers to commit to 1k each to turn it into PoA International Airport, alas I didn’t get enough commitments.

The way to make the money work is to turn it into a fly-in community… build houses around it with access to taxiways. You should see the premium associated with hangar homes at places like LL10 or LL22!
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My dad had a similar thought. Current T-hangar tenants pay 100k to own the hangar. Just don't think there's enough leftover buildable property leftover due to wetlands to start building hangar homes. I do know one guy offered 2m and she thought about it, so 8m was potentially negotiable.
 
kaiser said:
I did not buy it. I needed 8,000 PoAers to commit to 1k each to turn it into PoA International Airport, alas I didn’t get enough commitments.

The way to make the money work is to turn it into a fly-in community… build houses around it with access to taxiways. You should see the premium associated with hangar homes at places like LL10 or LL22!
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Honestly, if that were to come up as an investment opp down the road, i’d probably be game for it lol.
 
There's one by me for $4M claiming $40k/month in revenue. Looking at it I still can't figure put how to make the numbers work.
 
wheaties said:
There's one by me for $4M claiming $40k/month in revenue. Looking at it I still can't figure put how to make the numbers work.
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If this were a single family home rental it would work all day long.
 
4RNB said:
If this were a single family home rental it would work all day long.
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1% rule is always tight in the RE market. I’d only stick to that rule if I knew appreciation was there because cash flow will not. I like 2% deals much better. Business gets valued differently anyway. To many variables I’d need to know, will current owner do any owner financing as part of the deal? What is the value add you can bring, can rent increase, can cost be lowered. Lots of people run businesses but do so in an inefficient manner and wasteful. I wouldn’t run away from it but I’d definitely get more details and talk about creative finance. I do that all the time in the RE market, and lots of people will always scream it’s bad run away. Well don’t listen to them. Do your own due diligence.

As for a POA airport….im down!!!
 
I hear LHV (home of the Piper Aircraft Museum) might be turned into a residential complex. A nice grass strip not far away was sold to a developer not too long ago as well. For the asking price, I would've hoped that the airport residents would've made an attempt to buy it and turn it into an airpark, but I have no idea of the numbers involved. I've been having a distant dream of keeping a small airport alive, but the knowledge required for that isn't present. Might reach out to a couple of you at some point to get at least an initial idea of the costs and other hurdles involved. It's so sad to see them going away all over the place. Anyone know of any recently opened new airports?

And to add some humor to this thread:
Ventucky Red said:
ow hold on there a minute.... everyone knows they jump over the moon.. ;)
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4RNB said:
If this were a single family home rental it would work all day long.
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It would,, wouldn't it.. The problem is the cost of keeping the IFR approaches, stashing away enough for the runway replacement, and other such large upcoming bills. Kinda like the engine replacement and cost/hr of a twin.
 
There is a reason the majority of airports are government owned and run. Far far too much infrastructure to construct and maintain profitably. The real value of most airports is the intangible economic impact for the community.
 
midwestpa24 said:
There is a reason the majority of airports are government owned and run. Far far too much infrastructure to construct and maintain profitably. The real value of most airports is the intangible economic impact for the community.
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Overall, the majority of airports aren't government owned and run. There are just under 20,000 airports in the US. About 1/4 of those are public use; of those, yes, the majority (around 80%) are publicly owned.

I was actually surprised by this; I though the public ownership ratio would be smaller... no doubt because I usually frequent the smaller privately owned fields.
 
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