FBO aim on the network

[David Gilbert]

Hi Guys,

Been looking at getting some FBO's started in the network coverage area but wanted to know is the overall aim to have FBO's all linking up to each other on the network?

[Keith Smith]

It's really your call, there are no rules. My goal has been to try to establish a network of FBO's that would result in increased participation in FSE and PilotEdge (I think they are complimentary systems). I think the best way to do that is to have lots of jobs at known hubs going out to spokes, or the hubs of other networks that also have lots of PE-compatible jobs.

A PE-compatible job would be a job that is within the PE service area.

I'm not saying this is what everyone has to do, it is simply my goal as I establish FBO's on the network. Some people have been pointing their FBO's into my hub (46CA), or renting gates to do the same thing, but it's really up to each individual as to what they do.

[David Gilbert]

Hi Keith,

My aim is definitely to create jobs within the coverage area. There is another thread on here detailing a few of the FBO's within the PE area that create jobs within the network area, but I know that there are quite a few more than that. Is the aim to get all these FBO's pointing to each other to create the maximum amount of jobs?

[Keith Smith]

David, I might remove that second part of the FSE post that I made as it's going to be too hard to keep updated.

The goal isn't to have every FBO pointing at every other FBO. Each FBO has gates...each of those gates has a fixed number of jobs that it can create. When it creates a job to/from a gate, it picks from a list of the destinations that are configured for the gate. If every FBO pointed at every other FBO, then the list of jobs at a given FBO would be completely unpredictable, and more to the point, the chances of having more than 1-2 passengers going between a given city pair would be slim. What FSE users are typically looking for is the ability to fill up a plane of their choosing to make a trip as profitable as possible.

So, this is the reason for creating hubs and spokes. The spokes ONLY point to/from the hub. The hubs can point to the spokes and/or other hubs. This way, you can get to a hub and have lots of jobs to/from the spokes, then when you're ready for a change of scene, you can take paying jobs to another hub and start visiting its spokes, etc.

[David Gilbert]

Aha I understand now. So best thing to do is create a hub and then have as many spokes as you can with jobs being created to/from your hub. FBO management looks interesting to say the least!