The most common assumption among independent FBO operators facing competition from Signature or Atlantic is that the fight is a price fight — that the national chain's purchasing power, brand recognition, and national accounts make price the dominant variable in every account decision. Anthony Banome spent years competing against those same chains at Meridian in Teterboro and Fountain Blue in Opa-locka. His view is different: competing against the chains is exactly what an independent FBO should want. Not because price stops mattering entirely — but because a national chain sets a responsible floor that two independents competing with each other often won't.

Why the Chain Is the Better Competitor

Two independent FBOs competing at the same airport have a structural problem: neither has the data discipline that would prevent them from racing to the bottom on price. If one drops five cents to win an account, the other often responds — and the spiral continues until both are operating at unsustainable margins. A national chain will not do this. Their pricing structure has a floor defined by their cost of capital, their national contracts, and their operational standards. That floor is a competitive reality, not a ceiling. When the only competitor is a chain, the price competition has a natural stopping point — and the independent FBO can redirect its competitive energy toward the dimensions where it has genuine advantage.

Banome's counterintuitive position is that independent FBOs should study the chains carefully — not to copy their marketing or their amenities, but to copy their discipline. The chains know what each account should produce. They track performance against expectation. They hold their pricing under pressure because they have the data to justify it. Independent FBOs that develop the same data discipline find that the competitive conversation shifts from 'what price can I match?' to 'here's what we're delivering and why it's worth it.'

What the Independent Can Do That the Chain Can't

The structural advantage of an independent FBO is flexibility. A national chain operates within a framework of approvals, brand standards, and operational guidelines that makes customisation slow and sometimes impossible. An independent can make a decision in a conversation. Can we store some equipment in this corner of the hangar? Done. Can you set up a specific parking position for our crew? Done. Can you give us a different access arrangement during our peak season? Let's talk about it.

This flexibility is not unlimited — Banome is clear that all of these decisions still need to be evaluated against the cost they impose on the operation. But the speed and willingness to consider them is a legitimate differentiator that many accounts value highly. For a corporate flight department that has been treated as a number at a national chain, an FBO that makes them feel like their operational preferences matter is offering something genuinely different. That difference is worth something — often more than five cents on the fuel price.

The Identity Play

Banome uses a coaching analogy: some coaches install a fixed system and find players who fit it. Others look at the talent they have and build the playbook around them. The best independent FBOs do the second. They assess what the airport actually brings them — the predominant aircraft types, the primary customer base, the seasonal patterns, the competitive landscape — and build their identity around those realities rather than trying to import a template from a different market.

This means that the playbook that worked at Teterboro will not work unchanged in another market. Some of it will translate. The core principles — know your numbers, set expectations in writing, price by demographic, measure real estate utilisation — are universal. The specific accounts to pursue, the service mix to offer, and the positioning relative to the chain at that particular airport are all context-dependent. An FBO in a market where fractional programs dominate needs a different game plan than one where cargo or general aviation is the primary traffic.

Field Intelligence as a Competitive Tool

One of the most underused competitive advantages available to an independent FBO is field intelligence — specifically, knowing what is happening at every other FBO on the airport. When do competitor leases expire? Which of their accounts are under-served? Are there aircraft types that are on the competitor's ramp that don't fit their service model as well as they fit yours? Banome credits a mentor at White Plains with teaching him to think this way: you need to know your field completely, not just your own property.

The practical application: an independent that knows a chain tenant's lease expires in three months has a three-month window to have a conversation. If that tenant has had any frustration with the chain — response time, flexibility, pricing rigidity — the independent that reaches out proactively with a compelling offer at the right moment will win business that it wouldn't have won from a reactive position. That timing advantage is available to any independent willing to build the intelligence. It requires tracking, patience, and the willingness to act on the information when it matters.

Competing against the national chains is not about matching their resources. It is about deploying advantages that the chains structurally cannot replicate — speed, flexibility, identity, and the intelligence to act at the right moment. The independent FBOs that understand this and build their businesses around it are consistently competitive with operations that have significantly more capital and brand recognition.

Full episode with Anthony Banome at: https://flyironbird.com/private_jet_podcast/why-most-fbos-are-leaving-millions-on-the-runway. Visit flyironbird.com for more aviation advisory and operations content.