Faster Horses or...

Jim Wiley
4 days ago
4 min read

Some days, selling technology to FBOs feels like selling cars to people who want faster horses.

You show up with tools that can change the game, real-time data, mobile fueling, integrated payments, a better customer experience from front desk to ramp. And instead of excitement, you’re met with fear, excuses, and a thousand reasons why now isn’t the right time. FBOs hide behind the known. Behind the familiar. Because deep down, change feels risky, even if staying the same is quietly costing them more every day.

Why are FBO Operations like this?

Because many FBOs have been using the dated FBO technology, and the same familiar workarounds, for decades. They’ve made it work. We've gotten good at operating around the limitations. The accountant has her spreadsheet. The CSR knows the tail numbers by heart. The fueler radios in the order and expects billing to catch up later.

It’s familiar. And when your team is already moving a million miles an hour with limited resources, “familiar” feels safer than change, even if the tools you’re using are decades behind.

But the hard truth is: running an FBO today isn’t what it was 5, 10 or even 15 years ago.

It’s more complex. More expensive. More demanding.

Labor is harder to find and retain. Aircraft are more varied, take less fuel. Training is more involved. Airports are more constrained and/or more expensive. Customers are more connected and have higher expectations. Fuel is more commoditized, and margin pressure is real.

Pricing can’t be a gut decision anymore

It has to be a strategy. And strategy requires data, not instinct, not habit, and definitely not “how we’ve always done it.”

You need real numbers:

What aircraft are buying?
When they’re buying?
Where they’re going/coming from?
How they’re paying?
What services they’re using?
What they’re worth?
What everyone else is charging?

You need to know what’s working and what’s not, because that’s how you make better decisions. That’s how you find revenue you didn’t even realize you were missing. That’s how you grow margin without raising prices. Modern FBO systems make this a LOT easier

You can’t manage what you can’t see. And you definitely can’t optimize what you don’t understand, and it’s hard to understand what you’ve never measured.

And that leads to the next hard question:

How automated is your pricing, really?

Are you charging for everything you’re supposed to? Are the right prices applied every time? Or are you relying on a sticky note, a memory, or a CSR who “knows the usual deal”?

Now think about the cost of getting it wrong, not just in dollars, but in time and trust.

How much effort goes into chasing corrections, updating invoices, calming upset customers, and tracking down missing line items or incorrect payment methods? How many times has your team quietly let something slide just to avoid the hassle of fixing it?

These problems aren’t minor. They’re margins leaking out of your business, day after day. They’re customer experience killers. And they’re totally fixable, but only if you stop trusting your gut and start gathering and trusting the data.

So how do you break the cycle?

You start small, but intentionally. Pick one pain point and fix it the right way. Digitize it. Automate it. Measure it. Learn from it. Then move on to the next. Don’t chase abstract “efficiency.” Solve the actual problems that slow your team down, cost you money, or frustrate your customers.

Surround your people with tools that make them better, not busier.

Talk about data the way you talk about fuel. Question the phrase “that’s how we’ve always done it.” The question is how long you've done it, but why!

And most of all, get over the fear

That fear is what’s keeping you stuck. Stuck on outdated tech. Stuck in reactive mode. Stuck watching competitors quietly pass you by while you debate whether now is the time to upgrade. Spoiler Alert: It is!!!

This is exactly what we do at X-1. We’ve helped FBOs big and small modernize one step at a time, with tools built specifically for this industry, by people who’ve lived it. We don’t show up with theory. We show up with solutions that work, today.

While we are here to sell you software, it is software we built to help you drive your business forward. No more horses. Let’s go.

Want another place to start?

If you’re ready to dig deeper into these challenges with peers and experts who’ve lived them, join us this December in Daytona Beach. NATA is once again partnering with Airside FBO’s Kyle Eiserer and I to deliver an advanced-level leadership seminar for your managers and supervisors. This two-day workshop goes beyond the basics, tackling what it really takes to lead teams, improve operations, and deliver service that drives both experience and profitability.

You'll gain actionable tools for: