AOPA's new "Aircraft Hangar Development Guide" can help you grow your airport

AOPA's new Aircraft Hangar Development Guide can help you grow your airport

Aircraft hangars are more than a safe place to keep your aircraft. They attract business and can be the key to added financial viability for general aviation airports. In the post-9/11 environment, they also are important for securing aircraft.

AOPA has released the Aircraft Hangar Development Guide to help pilots successfully plan and complete a hangar project at their airport.

"Building hangars at an airport is much more involved than turning dirt and the simple construction of the structures," said Bill Dunn, AOPA vice president of airports. "It is much more complicated than building a new home. City, state, and FAA regulations can make the process confusing. This guide walks you through everything from the planning phases of gaining support for the project to wading through FAA regulations and obtaining funding, to the execution stage of building the hangars and moving in new tenants."

Whether you want to develop hangars at the nation's busiest general aviation airport or a small country strip, this guide will cover most of the issues the project could face.

Learn how to determine tenant and airport needs for hangars, project the costs and revenue, address environmental issues, and identify key decision makers.

Gain a better understanding of the importance of anticipating potential roadblocks. For example, the book suggests contingency planning in advance of the bidding process, just in case all of the bids come in too high or too low.

Ever managed a project as extensive as hangar development? If not, that's OK. The guide features checklists at the end of each step to help project managers decide whether the project is ready to move forward. Appendices include examples of key documents, such as an airport operating and expense summary, financial projection, and compelling business case for building new hangars.

January 9, 2006