Richmond’s airport has shelved its plans to take over fueling and other services for airliners from two firms that now do that work.
Instead of going ahead with the takeover, the Capital Region Airport Commission decided to extend Richmond Jet Center’s lease for five years until 2031 and is looking forward to signing a similar lease with the second firm, Million Air. The two fixed-base operators employ 120 people.
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Richmond Jet Center is a full-service fixed-based operator at Richmond International Airport. In this September 2022 photo, Lawrence Henson, right, works with Quintin Morris Jr. to refuel a plane at Richmond Jet Center in Sandston.
The commission will consider all options prior to any future public solicitations for the service as the extended leases expire, said Troy Bell, the airport’s director of marketing and air service development.
Last year’s proposal that the airport take over the business with the two firms’ leases scheduled to expire in January 2026 sparked strong opposition from airlines and other aviation businesses. They argued that the airport’s financial projections for the takeover were badly inflated.
In support of the proposal, airport president and chief executive officer Perry Miller had presented a draft financial plan. It projects the commission making a gross profit of between $11.9 million and $17.8 million on fuel sales in 2026, rising to between $17.4 million and $26 million in 2035. Revenue from other services would exceed $1 million a year.
“The current financials in the Pro Forma show inflated fuel revenues,” Andrew Higgins, manager of airport affairs for American Airlines, said in an email to Miller.
Steven St. Savoir, an executive at Pelican Aircraft Consulting, an aircraft management company, said replacing the two private firms with a single airport-run facility would drive users away.
“We are a frequent customer of the RIC airport, and this vote will have a direct impact on our operations and business decisions regarding the RIC airport facilities in the near future,” he said in a letter to the commission.
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Michael Clarke, president and chief executive officer of Richmond Jet Center, said the lease extension “provides critical operational stability for the airport, the airlines, general aviation customers and our employees.”
He said it also clears the way for the firm to upgrade its facilities at the airport.
The lease sets an annual rent of $582,383.72, payable monthly from Feb. 1, 2026, and adjusted in future years to reflect increases in the consumer price index measure of inflation.
It also says Richmond Jet Center will pay $77,472.67 for improvements to its roof, and that it will pay for other improvements to its facility if the commission approves. The company would get a credit against its rent for this work once completed, up to a total of $555,000.
The commission proposed taking over fueling and other services from Richmond Jet Center and Million Air after canceling two consecutive bid processes, saying the proposals it received were not satisfactory.
A key issue was the investment the commission hoped for in a new centralized services operation.
In a memo to airport commissioners, the staff wrote that only a monopoly operator could generate the money needed to build the new fixed-base operator facility the airport has been seeking and that while federal law bars private monopolies, it does allow public bodies, like the airport commission, to run monopoly fixed-base operation services.
With the Richmond Jet Center lease extension and the similar agreement the commission is working on with Million Air, there are no plans to relocate facilities for now, Bell said.
In addition to fueling, fixed-based operators provide a wide range of other services to airlines, charter firms, corporate jets and private pilots, including deicing and washing planes, as well as lavatory, tie-down and weather updates and flight planning.
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