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AirportImprovement.com      May | June 2026
FUELING 
RDG 
“This is very unique because there aren’t many situations 
where an airport can exercise that level of control,” Heath 
comments. “Operating its own FBO allows the airport to 
implement its priorities for economic development and offer the 
best services it can provide.
“If a new business opportunity arises, the airport no longer has 
to rely on a third-party FBO to agree to it.”
Clearing All Hurdles
The due diligence process also included consulting with officials
at Lancaster Airport (LNS), located about 30 miles southwest 
of RDG. 
“A big part of our analysis came from how Lancaster 
operates,” Heath says. “Seeing that success reinforced the idea 
that airport ownership of an FBO was a proven model worthy of 
serious evaluation.”
Ultimately, about 13 of the 20 people employed by the two 
former FBOs ended up working at Reading Aviation. The airport 
also hired nine more employees to ensure adequate staffing at 
the new FBO, which is open three hours a day longer than the 
two prior facilities and primarily focuses on fueling, hangar rentals 
and ground services.
“It’s always challenging to merge businesses, but we worked 
through a lot of concerns the employees had,” Tempesco says. 
“We kept presenting them with the strategic plan and explaining 
what we need from them to make the FBO successful.”
Some customers also were apprehensive about the change, 
but Tempesco says the airport alleviated their concerns by 
following through on its stated goals, particularly regarding 
services as well as consistent and transparent pricing for 
those services.
Positive Results
Tempesco reports that the airport’s move to operate its own FBO 
has been a success. After about two years, Reading Aviation is 
generating around $5 million of annual revenue, compared to 
about $470,000 per year from the previous two FBOs combined, 
primarily from lease payments. Plus, there’s been enough profit 
to pay the debt service—about $1.2 million a year—while still 
continuing to grow airport operations, as demonstrated by the 
plans to build more hangars. 
Furthermore, the airport’s biggest tenant—Quest Diagnostics, 
a medical testing business that operates a fleet of 24 aircraft to 
transport medical specimens—signed a 15-year extension of its 
Innovative engineering for a better planet.
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