By Jane Smith
Four companies submitted proposals last month in a bid to become the operator of the Lantana airport.
They are: Galaxy Aviation, Pahokee Airport, Saker Aviation and Sheltair Aviation.
The county’s Department of Airports is in a quiet period for 30 days while it reviews the proposals for the general aviation airport, officially known as Palm Beach County Park Airport. It sits at the northeast corner of Congress Avenue and Lantana Road.
Bids, originally due June 21, were extended to July 19. The four companies attended a mandatory pre-bid meeting in May.
Three operate airports in Florida. Pahokee Aviation is part of Landmark Aviation, based in Houston, which also operates Palm Beach Gardens airport and three other Florida airports. Galaxy Aviation, with operations at Palm Beach International and Boca Raton airports, has facilities at three other Florida airports. Sheltair Aviation, based in Orlando, operates the Executive Airport in Fort Lauderdale and 13 others in Florida.
Saker Aviation, based in Pennsylvania, operates out of the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton International Airport in Avoca, Pa.; the heliport in Manhattan; and the Garden City Regional Airport in Garden City, Kan.
The county airports department also had requested bids to develop a corner section of that airport property to build a hotel, restaurant or other commercial project. The airports department wanted to rent the vacant land. Because no company submitted a bid for that 5.99-acre parcel, the county canceled that request for proposals.
The Lantana airport, with 125,000 takeoffs or landings in 2012, is restricted to fixed-wing aircraft and helicopters; jets are not allowed to land there.
It does not have an aircraft control tower, and aircraft follow a voluntary noise-abatement plan. It also does not charge landing fees.
Most of those aircraft operations are touch-and-go landings practiced by student pilots at the three flight schools based at the Lantana airport, according to Florida Airmotive, the current airport operator.
Florida Airmotive has a long-term lease which expires at the end of March. In the late 1980s, it built a terminal in the style of an Old Florida farmhouse with a breezeway through the middle. The office has wooden benches, and model planes hang from the ceiling. It’s filled with bits of Palm Beach County aviation history, including old flight maps on the wall.
The company spent millions to turn the airport, oft-described as “The Junkyard” because of its decrepit buildings, into a homey showcase that pilots, student pilots and visitors enjoy. According to the operator, they did not bid because, “the county was not interested in extending the lease.”
The county airports department makes money from the Lantana airport in several ways: ground rent, share of the rent charged to tenants in the hangars, a share of the tie-downs and a 5-cent surcharge on fuel used by aircraft. That totaled $120,000 in the most recent financial year, said Mike Simmons, finance director for the county airports department. (The airports department budget is not part of the county’s general fund.)
Starting in April, the county airports department is looking to make $200,000 annually from the hangar rentals, plus an additional $9,487.50 for ground rental of the 14.63 acres, and an additional $10,000-plus from fuel sales (204,430 gallons were sold in 2012), according to its proposal.
It is offering a $2 million rent credit to the new Lantana airport operator to fix or replace the hangars.
It had originally offered $1 million, but doubled the amount after potential bidders said more money was needed to do the repairs.
Comments