Authorities at the Fort Wayne-Allen County Airport Authority in Indiana have approved a contract to construct a new $4 million FBO facility at Fort Wayne International Airport. Set for completion late next year, the new 12,000-sq-ft facility will eventually supplant the current Atlantic Aviation facility, destined for removal when the service provider’s lease expires in January 2016 to make room for expansion of the airline terminal. The airport has yet to determine whether it will operate the new facility itself or bring in an established service provider to manage it under contract. “Clearly the industry has changed in the last 40 years since we’ve had our contract,” airport manager Scott Hinderman told AIN. “You are starting to see a lot of contract management, you are starting to see some other things on how FBO services are being provided, so we are definitely going to evaluate and take a look at them.”

Atlantic, which has operated the lone FBO at the airport since 1988, had submitted a proposal to build its own FBO, but the authority rejected that plan in favor of constructing its own facility. “The airport decided to test the waters in a different direction,” said Atlantic Aviation president Lou Pepper, whose company is expected to be one of the bidders for the contract. “We would have liked to have been able to spend the capital and renew and go forward,” he said, “but they decided to do it this way and so we’re just waiting to see what happens.”