Airport Management Guide for Providing Aircraft Fueling Services

TRB’s Airport Cooperative Research Program has released ACRP Research Report 192: Airport Management Guide for Providing Aircraft Fueling Services designed to assist airports that are considering or are currently self-providing fueling services directly to their customers.

The management guide includes a methodology to help evaluate whether an airport should or should not provide fuel service, a checklist of action items required for providing fuel service, and a sample request for proposal to solicit bids from fuel suppliers.

The management guide also addresses a wide range of topics including feasibility evaluations for new or improved fueling facilities, fuel pricing and marketing strategies, and organizational considerations when starting or expanding a fueling service. In addition, there are introductions to how aviation fuels are produced and to the components of an airport fueling system, which can be used to brief municipal decision-makers or airport employees.

The management guide offers useful information about branded and unbranded fuel products, setting price, inventory controls, customer service, staffing levels, regulatory requirements, capital investment, and operating and maintenance costs associated with the fueling services.

There are three online appendices related to the guide.
• Appendix A contains case studies of the fueling operations of 16 airports;
• Appendix B contains Microsoft Excel worksheets (that can be downloaded and customized by airports to keep track of inventories, sales, operating expenses, and profit and loss) and a Microsoft PowerPoint presentation (to help airports produce their own PowerPoint presentations for their sponsors); and
• Appendix C contains a detailed bibliography.