FBO Global Aviation, based at Portland-Hillsboro Airport in Oregon, has devised a new twist on consolidating contract-fuel pricing information. While other companies have attempted in the past to create one-stop Web sites that display prices from multiple contract fueling companies, Global Aviation has taken this concept one step further by acting as the buyer for all of its customers’ contract fuel transactions.

“We’ve figured out a way to put all these discount programs on one screen,” said Michael Walker, who leads Global’s marketing and development. But instead of just finding a good fuel price, the Global Fuel Solutions (GFS) service acts as the fuel buyer on behalf of the customer. A customer who signs up for GFS, for example, can then use the GFS Web site to plan a trip. Information needed includes the desired fuel-uplift airports and aircraft registration number. The GFS Web site displays options for that trip, including the available contract fuel providers and the FBO that will deliver the fuel to the aircraft. Pricing is shown for various uplift amounts, including the minimum for that provider.

What is different about GFS is that it pays the bills to the contract fuel provider for customer fuel uploads. GFS is the cardholder for the discount programs and is obtaining discounts on behalf of its customers. GFS also bills its customers for all of the fuel that it buys on their behalf.

GFS does not add a mark-up to the fuel that it buys for its customers, but it does charge each customer $500 per month plus 15 percent of the savings that it is able to generate on each load of fuel.