Beyond passenger airline service, general aviation flights can provide flexibility for travelers looking to reach remote locations or take-off and land at specific times.
The Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association (AOPA) has estimated that as much as 90 percent of civil aircraft registered in the United States are general aviation aircraft. While major airports have general aviation (GA) terminals and share runways with GA aircraft, some locations solely handle GA traffic.
“There are airports that are exclusively dedicated for general aviation, and that’s because they have either runway limitations or they are in the city,” says Alberto Rocha, sales director, Americas, at ITW GSE.
When landing at GA airports or small FBOs, planes require the same type of ground service between flights as commercial aircraft. However, notes Derek Rose, VP of sales and marketing at AERO Specialties, because of the variance in airframes that these locations may handle, the equipment needs vary in many ways.
“For example, an FBO will need more tow-bars and heads than the commercial carrier, as well as different size towing tractors,” Rose explains. “Another important aspect of GSE in the business jet world is size. Due to the lower profile of many business jets, the servicing requirements can be different – not only in a safety aspect, but also for lavatory servicing heights, etc.”
Another consideration, he adds, is the hangering or maintenance of business jets and smaller GA airframes as the potential needs of an MRO can also be extremely different for a business jet than a commercial aircraft.
Who owns the equipment can also differ from location to location, advises Rocha. Where an airline or independent ground handler may own GSE to service commercial flights, an FBO or an airport may invest in ground equipment for GA.
“We have many clients that buy equipment to support their own plane,” Rocha adds.
Regardless of the aircraft being serviced, the location of the airport or the owner of the GSE, proper ground service remains paramount.
“They utilize the exact same type of equipment. It’s just on a smaller scale,” Rocha says. “They need tractors. They need GPUs. They need all of that, but obviously smaller.”
Equipment Needs
All GSE selections are driven by aircraft type and flight frequency/volume. This is true of towing equipment, fuel trucks, GPUs, tow-bars, lavatory and water service equipment and more.
“There are many requirements and aspects that are similar, especially for regional air carriers which basically handle commercialized business aircraft,” Rose says.
While the type of service is consistent, the scale of the equipment needed varies.
“The commercial side of aircraft and airports, they’re using 400Hz AC,” notes Rocha. “The type of power that is utilized for general aviation is different. The power supply that we sell to that segment is 28V DC.”
Mobile electric units are most popular at smaller airports, Rocha adds, because of the flexibility they offer.
“Noise is a big thing, and they do not want it,” he says.
“There are remote locations, where they might run diesel engines. That’s where we are seeing an opportunity for the eGPU to really be the future solution for them – a battery driven cart that you charge and then you can tow it wherever you want and use it.”
Rose said some smaller GA airports can get away with fewer pieces of GSE as well.
“An example of this would be aircraft that have the ability to start their engines with onboard batteries or external power packs.
“One very important determination on what would be needed to satisfy the airport’s customers would be runway length,” he adds. “If the runway is not long enough for larger business jets, then the GSE and airframe servicing requirements will be less.”
Other scaled down equipment like lower-profile lavatory carts, pushbacks vehicles with a drawbar pull (DBP) properly rated for an airframe could also be utilized at GA locations.
“You wouldn’t want to use a tug that is too small or too large for the airframe’s weight and NLG capacity,” Rose says.
Maintenance and Upkeep
Many smaller airports and FBOs do not have access to the same level of mechanical expertise or have the same amount dedicated mechanics on their staff, according to Rose. As a result, keeping the equipment in good operating condition is very important.
“Additionally, a larger airport or commercial carrier/airport would likely have multiple pieces of the same GSE. When a piece of equipment fails or needs to go into maintenance, they have alternate units they can utilize,” he adds. “For example, most FBOs and smaller airports may only have one tug or one GPU. “Therefore, when a piece of equipment fails at a FBO, it can be much more detrimental to the company/handler.”
Providing more simplistic GSE can assist support crew at GA locations as less maintenance may be required.
“They’re pretty lean when it comes to general aviation,” Rocha says, adding GSE maintenance is also sometimes outsourced. “From the commercial side, each airline has their own mechanics, and they scale up depending on how frequently they’re coming in and out.
“At a hub location, if you look at the number of mechanics American has at DFW or Delta has at Atlanta, it’s a very large scale support team,” he continues. “I don’t recall ever seeing that big of a support team at any general aviation location.”
Exotic Vehicles and Rental Cars
With less mechanics and fewer pieces of equipment on hand, many GA locations treat GSE differently.
While GSE utilized by commercial operations may be treated with disregard like a rental car, Rocha says GA locations may view their equipment like an exotic sports car.
“In general aviation, because it’s not a high volume operation, the culture is very different. They really take care of the equipment,” he says. “If the owner of the aircraft also owns the GSE, it’s pristine. I have seen equipment that’s been out there five years that looks better than when it left the factory.”
“Further, the discriminating tastes of business jet owners and wealthy private flyers can place a higher level of demand on the appearance and cosmetic maintenance of the equipment,” Rose adds. “Many business jet owners may not want antiquated or poorly maintained, or poorly cosmetically maintained, equipment to be used to service their airframe.”
“Ground support equipment is a long-range investment whereas commercial will swap out GSE in around 10 years,” Rocha says, adding the purchasing cycle in GA is significantly longer because well-cared for equipment can last for decades.
A lower amount of ground handling personnel turnover also benefits the GA community.
“They’re pretty self-sufficient,” Rocha notes.
“The operators of the equipment, most of the time, are also the guys that do the maintenance and repair,” Rocha says. “Once you do one training, they know it all. They can do the repair, they can do the maintenance and then they do the operation.”
“Smaller airports and smaller FBOs/handlers generally have lower levels of dedicated training. Typically, as one or two staff members are the main handlers,” points out Rose.
For example, if an operation only has one towing team or one certified equipment operator, that outfit will only be able to handle one airframe at a time. But busier FBOs and GA airports need multiple personnel and teams to move and handle several aircraft at once.
“In most fields, training can become much more important as operations grow in employee size and aircraft turns,” Rose says. “The more people, the more potential there is for mistakes to be made and damage to the aircraft. Therefore, training becomes much more important when oversight becomes stretched as operations grow and expand.”
About the Author
Josh Smith
Editor
Josh Smith served as editor of Ground Support Worldwide as editor from 2016 through 2024. He oversaw production of the print magazine, created GSW's newsletters on a daily basis, and updated the latest news on AviationPros.com.